Rheumatoid arthritis and cancer link

MANCHESTER, England, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- British researchers found a 40-percent increase in mortality in patients with both inflammatory polyarthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer.

"The results of this study demonstrated that five-year cancer survival in patients with IP is substantially reduced in comparison with that in the general population, even after adjusting for differences in age, sex, and cancer site, whereas the overall cancer incidence does not seem to be increased," observes study leader Dr. Alan Silman, an epidemiologist with the University of Manchester.

A team of researchers focused on 2,105 patients with recent onset inflammatory polyarthritis. Over time, a large proportion of new-onset IP cases evolve into RA.

Researchers followed the IP patients over a 10-year period to detect the occurrence of cancer. Overall, the incidence of cancer was not increased in the IP subjects compared with the general population; however, the risk of blood cell cancers was increased among the IP sample.

The study also compared the number of deaths in patients with cancer and inflammatory arthritis with that of cancer patients without a history of inflammatory arthritis and found the finding striking -- a 40 percent increase in mortality in patients with both IP and RA, according to the study published in the March issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.