Patients with dermatomyositis have an increased malignancy risk, warranting additional screening.Using international guidelines, this study found that 8.8% of patients considered high risk had a paraneoplastic dermatomyositis, indicating a cancer diagnosed in the 3 years before or after onset of the autoimmune disease.The single-center analysis helps validate the discriminatory ability of the risk stratification guidelines for identifying increased cancer risk, according to the researchers.
International guidelines can help identify dermatomyositis patients with a particularly high risk for cancer, according to a retrospective single-center U.S. study.
Among 413 patients with a known dermatomyositis diagnosis, risk stratification using International Myositis Assessment and Clinical Studies Group (IMACS) guidelines showed that 8.8% of the group considered high risk had a paraneoplastic dermatomyositis, as did 5.1% of the intermediate-risk group and 2.5% of the low-risk group.
Overall, 6.5% of the study population had a paraneoplastic dermatomyositis, meaning a cancer in the 3 years before or after the onset of dermatomyositis, reported Saakshi Khattri, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues in ACR Open Rheumatology.
