Systemic Immunosuppressive Therapy and the Occurrence of Malignancy in Patients with

Purpose: To compare the occurrence of malignancy in patients with severe ocular inflammatory disease treated with systemic corticosteroids alone or with systemic im-munosuppressive drugs with or without systemic corticosteroids. Methods: The clinical records of 543 patients with ocular inflammatory disease treated with systemic corticosteroids andfor immunosuppressive chemotherapy were reviewed in a retrospective cohort study. Characteristics of patients treated with cor-ticosteroids alone were compared with characteristics of patients treated with immu-nosuppressive agents with or without preceding corticosteroid treatment. The rates of malignancy after initiation of drug therapy were compared using an exact test for inci-dence rate data. Results: Compared with patients treated with corticosteroids alone, patients treated with immunosuppressants with or without corticosteroid treatment were older and had more severe systemic disease. During a total of 1261 person-years of follow-up, a malignancy developed in five patients. The rate of malignancy in the immunosuppressant group (4 malignancies during 968 person-years of follow-up) was not significantly differen