Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic and seronegative inflammatory arthritis occurring in patients with psoriasis. The current knowledge about the risk of malignancy associated with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients undergoing therapy is controversial. We focused on the relationship between malignancy and therapy and undertook a meta-analysis to address this issue.
A systematic literature search of the PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases was performed to identify relevant studies and trials. Statistical analysis was conducted using STATA 11.2 software.
Nine cohort studies were included, corresponding to a total of 43,115 PsA patients undergoing therapy. A significant positive association between therapy and increased risk for overall malignancy was found relative to the general population as the reference group (pooled RR, 1.29; 95% CI: 1.04-1.60). High heterogeneity was found (I
This study allowed the estimation of cancer risk in PsA patients during therapy. Large-scale longitudinal studies will be essential to draw firm conclusions regarding PsA-associated risk for treatment-induced malignancy.