medwireNews: A meta-analysis rules out a direct association between systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and breast cancer incidence.
Hassan Mehrad-Majd (Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran) and co-researchers explain that while some recent reports have suggested a decreased breast cancer risk in SLE patients relative to the general population, other studies have been unable to confirm such an association, leading them to conduct a meta-analysis of 18 studies comprising 110,720 SLE patients.
As reported in Clinical Rheumatology, there was no association between SLE and breast cancer incidence, with a nonsignificant relative risk of 1.012 versus the general population. The findings were similar when patients were stratified by factors such as study type, ethnicity, and SLE diagnostic criteria.
Mehrad-Majd et al conclude that “the clinicopathological features of SLE patients may not play a role in susceptibility to breast cancer, compared to the general population,” but caution that the results “should be interpreted in the context of significant heterogeneity among published cohorts.”
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