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Elevated incidence of hematologic malignancies in patients with Sjögren's syndrome compared with patients with rheumatoid arthritis (Finland)

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Abstract

The risk of hematologic malignancies was studied in Finnish patients withrheumatoid arthritis or Sjögren's syndrome, and the difference in the riskbetween those diseases was evaluated. The study cohorts comprised 676patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome, 709 with secondary Sjögren'ssyndrome, and 9,469 with rheumatoid arthritis identified from the Finnishhospitals' national discharge register. The follow-up times were 5,336, 4,254and 65,391 person-years, respectively. Data on the incidence of malignancieswere collected from the files of the Finnish Cancer Registry. The incidenceof hematologic malignancies was elevated in the study cohorts. Thestandardized incidence ratio (SIR) of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was: 2.2 (95percent confidence interval [CI] 1.5-3.1) for rheumatoid arthritis; 4.5 (CI =1.5-11) for secondary Sjögren's syndrome; and 8.7 (CI = 4.3-16) for primarySjögren's syndrome. The ratio of the SIR of primary Sjögren's syndroma cfrheumatoid arthritis alone was 3.9 (CI = 1.8-8.0) in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma,and 3.4 (CI = 1.2-8.1) in other hematologic cancers. The incidence ofhematologic malignancies, especially that of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, iselevated in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. It is higher in patients withsecondary Sjögren's syndrome and highest in patients with primary Sjögren'ssyndrome. Differences in the immuno-logic aberration influenceoncogenesis.

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Kauppi, M., Pukkala, E. & Isomäki, H. Elevated incidence of hematologic malignancies in patients with Sjögren's syndrome compared with patients with rheumatoid arthritis (Finland). Cancer Causes Control 8, 201–204 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018472213872

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