Cancer risk in patients with Behçet disease: A nationwide population-based dynamic cohort study from Korea

Background: Many studies have shown a link between inflammation and cancer development. However, there are few studies regarding the correlation between Behçet disease (BD) and cancer. Objectives: To determine the overall cancer risk and risk for specific cancers in patients with BD. Methods: Patients with BD (n = 14,137; mean age, 44.2 ± 12.5 years; male patients, 32.4%) without known previous cancer were selected from the Korean National Health Insurance Database between 2007 and 2014. An age- and sex-matched control population of individuals without BD was randomly sampled at a ratio of 10:1. Both cohorts were followed for incident cancer until 2015. Results: Overall, cancer was newly diagnosed in 451 patients with BD (3.19%) and 3975 controls (2.81%) during the follow-up period. Patients with BD showed a significantly higher risk for cancer compared with the controls (hazard ratio [HR], 1.134; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.029-1.25), leukemia (HR, 5.801; 95% CI, 3.24-10.385), lymphoma (HR, 2.584; 95% CI, 1.559-4.283), oral cavity and pharyngeal cancer (HR, 2.113; 95% CI, 1.102-4.052), thyroid cancer (HR, 1.256; 95% CI, 1.05-1.501), and prostate cancer (HR, 1.784; 95% CI, 1.141-2.791). Limitations: The treatment or severity of diseases in each individual was not examined. Conclusions: Patients with BD had a higher risk for overall cancer compared with controls without BD. Physicians should carefully monitor patients with BD for the potential development of malignancies.