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Associations between bullous pemphigoid and primary malignant cancers: an English national record linkage study, 1999–2011

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Abstract

We conducted a nationwide record-linked study using all English NHS hospital admission data and mortality statistics from 1999 to 2011 to evaluate the risk of concurrent or subsequent bullous pemphigoid (BP) in a cohort of 2,873,720 individuals with malignant cancers, when compared with a reference cohort. We calculated standardised rate ratios (RRs) based on person-years at risk, comparing the observed and expected numbers of BP cases in the cancer cohort with those in the reference cohort. Overall, the cohort of people with a record of a malignant cancer was not found to be at greater risk of concurrent or subsequent BP than the cohort of people without a record of a malignant cancer (RR 0.96, 95 % CI 0.88–1.04), although elevated risks of BP were found in sub-cohorts of people with either kidney cancer, laryngeal cancer or lymphoid leukaemia. We also similarly analysed the risk of concurrent and subsequent malignant cancers in a cohort of people with a principal diagnosis of BP, and again found no increased risk as compared with the reference cohort (RR 1.00, 95 % CI 0.92–1.09).

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Acknowledgments

Over many years, the linked data–files were built by Leicester Gill and Matt Davidson, Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology (UHCE), University of Oxford. David Yeates (UHCE) wrote the software package used for the analysis. The Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology is funded by the English National Institute for Health Research to analyse the linked data (Grant reference number RNC/035/002). The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the funding body.

Conflict of interest

The authors state no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for analysis of the record linkage study data was obtained from the Central and South Bristol Multi-Centre Research Ethics Committee (04/Q2006/176).

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Correspondence to Eugene Ong.

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Ong, E., Goldacre, R., Hoang, U. et al. Associations between bullous pemphigoid and primary malignant cancers: an English national record linkage study, 1999–2011. Arch Dermatol Res 306, 75–80 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-013-1399-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-013-1399-5

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