Common Variable Immune Deficiency (CVID) is associated with an increased risk of malignancies, and in particular of gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to compare the incidence of gastric cancer in a German and an Italian CVID cohort.
Risk for cancers among 491 CVID German patients within a single centre cohort (CCI Freiburg) was compared to cancer incidence from the German Cancer Registry Database. Risk of cancer among 455 CVID Italian patients of three centres (Rome, Padua and Naples) was compared to cancer incidence from the Italian Cancer Registry Database.
CVID patients showed an increased cancer incidence for all sites combined in the Italian cohort (Obs = 133, SIR = 2.4; 95%CI = 1.7–3.5),and in the German cohort (Obs = 20, SIR = 1.7 95%CI = 1.05–2.6). Gastric cancer in the Italian cohort (Obs = 25; SIR = 6.4; 95%CI = 3.2–12.5) and in the German cohort (Obs = 3, SIR = 7.9 95%CI = 1.6–23.0) were significantly increased with respect to the general population.
Despite the regional differences in the gastric cancer incidence in the general population between Italy and Germany, CVID patients carry a similar increased risk of gastric cancer in both cohorts. Additional studies aimed to identify major risk factors and prevention plans need to be established for the long-term follow up of CVID patients.