Incidence of cancer among men with the Felty syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the incidence of cancer (especially lymphoproliferative malignancies) in patients with the Felty syndrome.


METHODS
A retrospective cohort study.


METHODS
A computerized database of all discharge records for 1969 to 1990 from a Veterans Affairs hospital.


METHODS
906 men with a discharge diagnosis of the Felty syndrome.


METHODS
Standardized incidence ratios (SIR) (ratios of observed-to-expected events) estimated the risk for specific cancers. Hospital records confirmed the diagnoses of the Felty syndrome and cancer.


RESULTS
We observed a twofold increase in total cancer incidence (137 patients; SIR = 2.09; 95% CI, 1.8 to 2.5). The risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (19 patients; SIR = 12.8, CI, 7.7 to 20.0) was much greater than the twofold increase in risk for lymphoma generally reported for rheumatoid arthritis. The risk for leukemia was increased but only within 5 years of the first hospitalization for the Felty syndrome, (13 patients; SIR = 7.67; CI, 4.1 to 13.1).


CONCLUSIONS
The increased risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma after the Felty syndrome in our study is similar to the risk associated with the Sjögren syndrome and may reflect similar immunostimulatory mechanisms.
Gridley
G
G
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
Klippel
J H
JH
Hoover
R N
RN
Fraumeni
J F
JF
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005258:Felty Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies