Cancer in systemic lupus: what drives the risk?

摘要

The recent paper of Parikh-Patel et al. revisits the association between SLE and cancer, a phenomenon established in earlier works by other teams. Unfortunately, the most clinically relevant question, regarding the mechanism underlying the association between cancer and SLE, remains largely unanswered. To date, there are two large-scale studies that have shed some light on these issues. Last year, Lofstrom et al. published a case-control study presenting convincing data suggesting that disease activity plays a role in driving the risk of hematological malignancies in SLE. However, that study was unable to control concomitantly for disease activity and drug exposures, two variables that are very tightly linked. The most thorough assessment of factors influencing cancer risk in SLE was conducted in a large, multi-center, clinically defined SLE cohort, with results only recently available.