Researchers suggest a possible association between rosacea and a higher incidence of breast cancer and glioma, possibly related to their shared relationship with inflammation.
Conversely, the researchers also found a lower prevalence of hematologic cancer in patients with rosacea. The findings were published recently in the Journal of Dermatology.

Patients with newly diagnosed tumors (n=7548) who had a follow-up assessment for rosacea were enrolled in the study. Rosacea was diagnosed if patients experienced flushing episodes several times a day and/or changes in erythema, telangiectasia, papules, pustules, and phymatous approximately 1 year prior to receiving a cancer diagnosis.

An age- and sex-matched cancer-free control cohort was also included for comparison (n=8340). The researchers evaluated correlations between cancer and rosacea diagnoses in logistic regression analyses, a media release from Dermatology Advisor explains.

Compared with patients without rosacea, patients with rosacea had an increased breast cancer risk (odds ratio [OR], 5.0; 95% CI, 4.02-6.2; <.001), as well as glioma risk (OR, 2.16; 95% CI, 1.12-4.17; =.02). Patients with rosacea also had a reduced risk for hematologic tumors compared with patients who were rosacea-free (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.2-0.55; <.001).

Patient age with breast cancer and rosacea was lower than patients with breast cancer without rosacea (47.4±0.6 vs 49.6±0.3 years, respectively; <.01).

Relative to the non-rosacea group, patients in the rosacea group were more likely to have an estrogen receptor (ER)-positive status (OR, 2.57; 95% CI, 1.43-4.63), high low-density lipoprotein levels (OR, 2.22; 95% CI, 1.43-3.45; =.02), and low high-density lipoprotein levels (OR, 2.37; 95% CI, 1.21-4.63; =.07), the release continues.

Study limitations include the recruitment of patients from a single center, as well as the use of a survey to identify patients with tumors.

“We confirm that rosacea may be a manifestation of systemic disease on the skin,” the investigators write, “and the underlying mechanisms require further studies to explain.”

[Source: Dermatology Advisor]