Pemphigoid and Cancer

To evaluate the significance of the association of malignant disease with bullous pemphigoid, we reviewed 497 consecutive cases with positive immunofluorescence tests for circulating antibodies to basement membrane. We searched the Swedish Cancer Registry, Stockholm, Sweden, for records reporting malignancies in the study population (1958 to 1985), and the expected number of malignancies was calculated on the basis of age- and sex-standardized incidence data. In 61 patients, a total of 69 malignancies were diagnosed. The expected number of malignancies was 82.6. In 25 patients, a total of 27 malignancies appeared during the same year as the onset of pemphigoid, or later. The expected number was 35.8. The median titer of circulating antibodies in the 497 patients, in the 61 patients with malignancy, and in the 25 patients with malignancy preceded by the pemphigoid, were not significantly different. We conclude that pemphigoid is not statistically associated with malignancy, and that the former hypothesis of such an association was based on age only.