SAN DIEGO—Men with autoimmune diseases have a higher incidence of prostate cancer (PCa) than those without those diseases, according to study findings presented at the American Urological Association annual meeting.
Using the National Inpatient Sample database, researchers obtained data on 189,290 men with a history of autoimmune disease—multiple sclerosis (MS), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic sclerosis, psoriasis, Sjogren’s syndrome, discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE), or rheumatoid arthritis (RA)—and a subsequent diagnosis of PCa.
The investigators, led by Zachary Klaassen, MD, a urology resident at the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, in Augusta, compared the age-specific incidence of PCa in this cohort with an external cohort of patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database (2000-2009).
Continue Reading
Compared with the general population, the incidence of PCa was three times greater for men with MS, five times greater for men with SLE, six times greater for men with systemic sclerosis, seven times greater for men with psoriasis, nine times greater for men with Sjogren’s syndrome, 10 times greater for men with DLE, and 10 times greater for men with RA, according to the researchers.
Autoimmune disease affects 3.6 million to 5.9 million men in the U.S., Dr. Klaassen and his colleagues noted.
To their knowledge, the investigators said, their study is the first to suggest an increased incidence of PCa in men with autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Klaassen cautioned that the finding of an increased incidence of PCa may be due to increased screening of patients who, because of their autoimmune disease, may receive more intensive medical follow-up.
