Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To evaluate relative risk for cancer in patients with ocular cicatricial pemphigoid (OCP). Methods: Medical records of patients diagnosed with OCP and seen by Immunology and Uveitis Service between 1998 and 2002 were reviewed. Data on age (at the diagnosis of OCP, at the diagnosis of cancer, and at the last follow–up visit), sex, and presence or absence of cancer in the medical history were recorded. Patients with OCP who were diagnosed with cancer more than twelve months prior to diagnosis of OCP were excluded from the study. Number of cancers expected in this group of OCP patients was calculated as the sum of age and sex specific observation periods reported by the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (NCISEER) database. Relative risk was calculated as the ratio of cancers observed in the group of OCP patients to those expected. The 95% confidence interval was calculated using the Poisson distribution. Results: Eighty–two patients with OCP were identified. Six of them had history of cancer. Three of these six patients were excluded from the study, since the diagnosis of cancer was made 13, 5, and 4 years, respectively, prior to diagnosis of OCP. Hence, the total number of OCP patients included in the study was 79 and the number of cases with cancer included in the study was 3 (95% confidence interval, 0.62 to 8.77). Using the NCISEER database the expected number of cases with cancer in this group of OCP patients was 10.37. The relative risk for cancer in these patients was 0.29 (95% confidence interval, 0.09 to 0.90). The number of observed cases with cancer was statistically significantly lower (p<0.01) when compared to those expected. Conclusions: These data suggest that patients diagnosed with OCP are at lower risk for cancer than general population.
Keywords: conjunctivitis • autoimmune disease • inflammation