Incidence of cancer among men with the Felty syndrome.

<bold>Objective: </bold>To estimate the incidence of cancer (especially lymphoproliferative malignancies) in patients with the Felty syndrome.<bold>Design: </bold>A retrospective cohort study.<bold>Setting: </bold>A computerized database of all discharge records for 1969 to 1990 from a Veterans Affairs hospital.<bold>Patients: </bold>906 men with a discharge diagnosis of the Felty syndrome.<bold>Measurements: </bold>Standardized incidence ratios (SIR) (ratios of observed-to-expected events) estimated the risk for specific cancers. Hospital records confirmed the diagnoses of the Felty syndrome and cancer.<bold>Results: </bold>We observed a twofold increase in total cancer incidence (137 patients; SIR = 2.09; 95% CI, 1.8 to 2.5). The risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (19 patients; SIR = 12.8, CI, 7.7 to 20.0) was much greater than the twofold increase in risk for lymphoma generally reported for rheumatoid arthritis. The risk for leukemia was increased but only within 5 years of the first hospitalization for the Felty syndrome, (13 patients; SIR = 7.67; CI, 4.1 to 13.1).<bold>Conclusion: </bold>The increased risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma after the Felty syndrome in our study is similar to the risk associated with the Sjögren syndrome and may reflect similar immunostimulatory mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]