Risk of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer in Connective Tissue Disease and The Impact of Immunosuppressive Therapy.

The objective of this study is to investigate the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer in patients with connective tissue disease and to assess the impact of immunosuppressive therapy on this risk. This is a retrospective case control cohort study of 8281 patients with connective tissue disease (systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren’s disease and scleroderma) and 8281 age, race, and gender matched controls followed for a 5-year period between 2002-2012, who obtained their care from a large integrated multispecialty group practice in Northern California. The odds ratio for developing squamous cell skin cancer among patients with connective tissue disease was 1.47 (95% CI, 1.14-1.90) (P=0.003) while the odds ratio for developing all non-melanoma skin cancer was 1.26 (95% CI, 1.08-1.49) (P=0.005). Patients on immunosuppressive medication for at least one year had an OR of 1.69 (95% CI, 1.16-2.45) of developing non-melanoma skin cancer (P=0.006) when controlled for age, race, gender, type of connective tissue disease, smoking status, and health care utilization. Our study shows an increased risk of non-melanoma skin cancer among patients with connective tissue disease. We also note that patients on immunosuppressive therapy for at least one year had an increased incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings. J Drugs Dermatol. 2020;19(5):  doi:10.36849/JDD.2020.4781. PMID: 32484614 [PubMed - as supplied by publis...
Source: Journal of Drugs in Dermatology - Category: Dermatology Tags: J Drugs Dermatol Source Type: research