Cancer Risks in Vitiligo Patients: A Nationwide Population-Based Study in Taiwan

Abstract

Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease characterized by destruction of melanocytes and associated with other autoimmune disease. Whether the dysregulation of immune system enhances oncogenesis or not remains obscure. Until now, no nationwide population-based study has been conducted regarding this. As such, this paper aims to clarify cancer risk in vitiligo patients. A retrospective nationwide population-based cohort study between 2000 and 2010 was performed based on data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of cancers were analyzed. Among the 12,391 vitiligo patients (5364 males and 7027 females) and 48,531.09 person-years of observation, a total of 345 cancers were identified. Significantly increased SIRs were observed for prostate cancer in male patients, thyroid cancer and breast cancer in female patients and bladder cancers in both male and female patients. Unfortunately, the low incidence rate of certain cancers limited the power of our statistical analyses. This study demonstrated the patterns of malignancies in vitiligo patients of Taiwan. Compared with the general population, male patients had higher risks of prostate cancer and female patients had higher risks of thyroid cancer and breast cancer. The risks of bladder cancer were also increased in both male and female patients.

Iris metastasis as the initial presentation of upper gastrointestinal tract carcinoma: a case report

“…Later, the patient was diagnosed with gastric carcinoma, and surgery was performed [11]. Although vitiligo predominates in a large number of people, it is not yet confirmed that the coexistence of vitiligo and tumors are merely a coincidence or whether they have a common biological explanation [12].…”

The Risk of Mortality among Psoriatic Patients with Varying Severity: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study in Taiwan

“…Several studies investigated the mortality risk in psoriasis patients with respect to disease severity [8,10,11,26,27,28]. Among these studies, four suggested an increased mortality in both patients with mild and severe psoriasis compared with the general population [8,10,27,28]; one reported a significant higher risk of mortality in patients with severe psoriasis [11].…”

“…The NHIRD database contains registration files and original reimbursement claims data, including demographic characteristics, outpatient and inpatient services, diagnostic codes, procedures performed, and details of prescriptions and comorbidities. The NHIRD has been widely used in epidemiological studies [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]. Previous studies have confirmed the high accuracy and validity of the NHIRD in recording psoriasis [10].…”

Vitiligo and skin cancer: is it a question of ethnicity?

“…Two other studies have been conducted in Asia, and they provide conflicting results. Harrist et al .…”

“…report no skin cancer outcomes in either vitiligo or nonvitiligo groups in India. The Taiwanese study by Cheng‐Yan et al . (the only other population‐based study ever conducted) showed a decreased risk of NMSC and an increased risk of melanoma in patients but was limited by statistical power.…”