Secondary Cancer Risk Rises After Cutaneous B-Cell Lymphoma

TOPLINE: 

In a large US cohort study, patients with primary cutaneous B-cell lymphoma (pCBCL) had significantly higher risks of developing hematologic and prostate cancers.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers analyzed data from 3757 patients with pCBCL (median age, 62.0 years; 56.7% men) diagnosed between January 2000 and December 2020 using 17 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER 17) cancer registries.
• Relative risk was calculated as standardized incidence ratio (SIR), the ratio of observed and expected secondary cancers, with significance determined by 95% confidence intervals.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall, 343 (9.1%) patients had secondary cancers. Of those, 223 (65.0%) had solid tumors and 111 (32.4%) had hematologic cancers.
• Compared with those without secondary cancers, patients with secondary cancers were more often White (90.7% vs 82.5%; P < .001), aged 50-74 years (68.2% vs 48.4%; P < .001), and had stage I (62.4% vs 47.5%; P < .001) or stage II (5.5% vs 3.4%; P = .04) lymphoma.
• Women had a shorter latency to the time they developed secondary cancers compared with men (9.9 vs 12.2 years), despite being diagnosed with pCBCL at a later age.
• Patients with pCBCL exhibited an elevated risk for secondary hematologic cancers (SIR, 4.79; 95% CI, 3.94-5.77) and prostate cancer (SIR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.13-1.92).

IN PRACTICE:

“Patients with pCBCL have increased second primary hematologic and prostate cancer risk,” which “may inform patient counseling,” the study authors wrote. “Future studies,” they added, “should consider patient factors associated with secondary cancers when developing screening guidelines.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Vrusha K. Shah, MPH, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was published online on April 30 in JAMA Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS:

Study limitations included the predominantly White population, incomplete data on patient demographics and comorbidities, and a lack of evaluation of the biological mechanisms that could drive secondary cancers.

DISCLOSURES:

No conflicts of interest were reported by the authors.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.