Cancer risk in Korean patients with gout

Background/aims: Using a nationwide cohort, we investigated the cancer risk in Korean patients with gout.

Methods: Data were obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance Service Database. Patients with gout were defined as those aged ≥ 20 years who were diagnosed with gout and received anti-gout medication (allopurinol, colchicine, and benzbromarone) between 2008 and 2010. Patients with nail disorders were randomly assigned to a control group (1:1 ratio) after frequency matching for age and sex. Cancer incidence was then investigated between 2012 and 2018. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to investigate the association between gout and cancer after adjusting for concomitant diseases.

Results: This study included 179,930 patients with gout and an equal number of matched controls. The incidence of overall cancer was higher in patients with gout than in controls (incidence rate ratio 1.08). Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that gout was associated with a hazard ratio of 1.053 (95% confidence interval 1.031-1.077) after adjusting for concomitant diseases.

Conclusions: Gout was associated with a significantly high risk of cancer, especially esophageal, stomach, colon, liver, pancreatic, lung, ovarian, renal, and bladder cancers.

Keywords: Cancer; Gout; Incidence.