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Patients with pediatric psoriasis not at increased risk for cancer

Patients with pediatric psoriasis did not display a significantly increased overall cancer risk when compared with pediatric patients without psoriasis, according to recently published study results in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study by obtaining data from the IMS LifeLink Health Plan Claims Database including pediatric psoriasis cases from Jan. 1, 1998, to Nov. 2, 2007, with data extracted through Jan. 31, 2008, to allow for at least 91 days’ follow-up.

Standardized incidence rations (SIR) were used to compared cancer incidence with the U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data.

There were 9,045 patients with pediatric psoriasis (55.9% female) and 77,206 patients without psoriasis (61.8% female) matched to the pediatric psoriasis cohort.  Mean age of entry in both cohorts was 11.5 years.

The study included 142 patients with an ICD-9 code suggesting potential cancer. Eighteen patients in the pediatric psoriasis cohort and 17 patients in the nonpsoriasis cohort had probable or highly probable cancer.

The patients with pediatric psoriasis had a nonsignificantly lower incidence compared with those without psoriasis (HR = 0.43; 95% CI, 0.05-3.45). When the first 90 days’ follow-up was included, HR was 1.67 (95% CI, 0.54-5.18).

There was a significantly increased lymphoma rate in the pediatric psoriasis cohort when compared with SEER data (SIR = 5.42; 95% CI, 1.62-12.94); however, the nonpsoriasis cohort did not have a relative significant increase.

“The results of this study do not suggest an increased cancer risk in pediatric psoriasis patients compared with those without psoriasis,” the researchers wrote. “However, sensitivity analyses using more inclusive outcome definitions … indicated that pediatric psoriasis patients might have an increased cancer risk compared with those without psoriasis in univariate analysis, although the results were not statistically significant.”

“Although a potentially increased risk for lymphoma was observed among pediatric psoriasis patients when compared with the general population rates reported by SEER, further investigation is warranted in different, large pediatric populations with longer duration of follow-up,” the researchers concluded.  – by Bruce Thiel

Disclosure: Gu reports being employed by Pfizer and owning stock and stock options in Pfizer, which was a funding source for the study. Please see the full study for the other researcher’s relevant financial disclosures.