Cancer survivors, especially survivors of hema- tologic malignancies, have an increased risk for psoriasis, according to a research letter published in the British Journal of Dermatology. Research- ers conducted a nationwide, population-based cohort study to examine the incidence of psori- asis among survivors of adult-onset cancer using data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database. The analyses included 804,836 newly enrolled cancer survivors (older than 50) compared with 1,613,046 age- and sex-matched cancer-free individuals. Cancer survivors had a significantly increased risk for psoriasis com- pared with controls after adjustment for age, sex, and comorbidities (HR, 1.41). In subgroup analyses, the risks for psoriasis were increased for cancer survivors of leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, skin cancer, and lung cancer (HRs, 3.36, 2.66, 2.50, 2.32, and 2.02, re- spectively) compared with cancer-free controls. After adjustment for potential confounders, the risks were not significantly elevated for survivors of uterine and testicular cancers. “It is conceiv- able that the chronic inflammatory nature of cancer, as well as commonly associated risk factors such as obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption, may increase the risk of psoria- sis among cancer survivors,” the authors wrote. “In addition, cancer may potentially predispose patients to the development of psoriasis.”

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