Sarcoidosis and malignancy

Abstract

Little is known about the cancer risk following sarcoidosis, even though the association between sarcoidosis and malignancy has been disputed for the last several decades. Malignant tumors are most common among manifestations in patients with sarcoidosis.These malignant tumors include solid tumors such as lung cancer, gastric cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer and so forth ; furthermore, hematologic malignacies such as malignant lymphoma and leukemia are found. we evaluated the occurrence and type of malignancy on the basis of data among 486 patients with sarcoidosis for a total of 5392 person-years presenting at Okayami University Hospital. We found that 26 patients were diagnosed as having 15 types of malignant tumors following sarcoidosis. The observed number of la yngeal cancer (2 cases) and skin cancer (3 cases) was significantly greater than the expected number (0.24 and 0.63 per 100,000 people) with the relative risk of i.3 and 4.7, respectively (p = 0.0246). Malignancy can also be associated with the occurrence of sarcoid reaction that is typically found in the regional lymph n xle. Much attention should be given to distinguishing between sarcoid reaction and true systemic sarcoidosis. Sarcoidosis on the whole does not appear to be associated with the increased risk of malignancy ; however, elevated risk was found in some maligna icies. Careful observation of sarcoidosis patients is required. These it lung can and so such as We eval on the b sis for.