Increased risk of gastric cancer in relation with pernicious anaemia in patients with primary antibody deficiency: A nationwide case control study.

BACKGROUND/AIM: We aimed to assess gastrointestinal cancers risks in a large cohort of individuals with primary antibody deficiency (PAD) and their association with risk of autoimmune and inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases.

METHODS

Investigating a French national database of inpatient admissions between 2010 and 2018, we identified 12,748 patients with PAD and 38,244 control non-exposed individuals. We performed multiple exposed-non-exposed studies using conditional logistic regression.

RESULTS

In comparison with non-exposed patients, PAD patients had increased risk of in situ gastric carcinoma (Odds Ratio (OR) =10.5 [95 % CI 2.2; 50.5]), malignant gastric tumor (OR=3.2 [95 % CI 2.2; 4.4]) and colorectal cancer (OR=1.2 [95 % CI 1; 1.5]). PAD patients had also increased risk of pernicious anaemia (OR=8 |95 % CI 5.6; 11.5]), Crohn's disease (OR= 4.4 [95 % CI 3.5; 5.6]), ulcerative colitis (OR=2.9 [95 % CI 2.4; 3.6]) and coeliac disease (OR=13.3 [95 % CI 9.1; 19.5]). Within patients with gastric cancer, those with PAD had increased risk of pernicious anaemia (OR=8.4 [95 % CI 1.5; 215]; p = 0.01) but not of H. pylori infection.

CONCLUSIONS

Risk of gastric cancer is particularly high in PAD patients and notably risk of in situ gastric carcinoma in association with pernicious anaemia. It supports indication of early endoscopic screening in these patients.