Patients with Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) still have increased mortality and risk of cancer than general population. In this study, we investigated the mortality and risk of cancer of SLE patients.
This study was conducted in Hanyang BAE lupus cohort from 1998 to 2015. Mortality and malignancy data were linked from the Korean National Statistics Office and the Korea Central Incidence Database. The Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) and Standardized Incidence Ratio (SIR) was estimated by dividing the observed number of events by the expected number of events of age- and sex- matched general population of matched year.
In 1284 patients, total 71 deaths were observed. The most common cause of death was SLE (52.1%) followed by infection (18.3%), cerebrovascular disease (8.5%) and suicide (7.0%). The total age- and sex- adjusted SMR was 3.4 [95% CI (Confidential Interval) 2.6-4.1]. SMR in patients younger than 20, aged 20-39, aged 40-59 and over 60 were was 12.2 (95% CI 0-26.0), 9.8, 3.7, and 1.0, respectively.
Malignancy data were available in 1,020 patients. Fifty-five solid tumor (24 thyroid cancers, 5 colorectal cancers, 4 breast cancers, 4 cervical cancers, et al) and 5 hematologic malignancies was developed. The total age- and sex- adjusted SIR was 1.1 (95% CI 0.8-1.4).
Patients with SLE had higher risk of mortality than general population and the younger patients had the higher risk of mortality. The leading cause of death was SLE itself followed by infection and cerebrovascular disease. The risk for cancer SLE patients was similar with that of general population.