No generally increased risk of cancer after total hip arthroplasty performed due to osteoarthritis

Previous studies on the risk of cancer after total hip arthroplasty (THA) contradict each other, and many are hampered by small cohort sizes, residual confounding, short observation times or a mix of indications underlying the THA procedure. We evaluated the risk of cancer after total hip arthroplasty due to osteoarthritis in a nationwide cohort by comparing cancer incidences in individuals exposed to total hip arthroplasty due to osteoarthritis and in unexposed, sex-, age- and residence matched individuals. To address some previous studies’ shortcomings, information on comorbidity and socioeconomic background were obtained and adjusted for. We included 126,276 patients exposed to a cemented THA between 1992 and 2012, and 555,757 unexposed individuals. Follow-up started on the day of surgery for exposed individuals and respective date for matched, unexposed individuals, and ended on the day of death, emigration, censuring or December 31st, 2012, whichever came first. The Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Registry (SHAR), the Swedish Cancer Registry, the Swedish National Patient Registry and Statistics Sweden were accessed to obtain information on procedural details of the THA, cancer diagnoses, comorbidities, and socioeconomic background. The primary outcome measure was the occurrence of any cancer after the index date. Exposed individuals had a slightly lower adjusted risk of developing any cancer than unexposed individuals (hazard ratio [HR] 0.97; CI 0.95–0.99). The only cancer with a statistically significant risk increase in exposed individuals was skin melanoma (HR 1.15; CI 1.05–1.24). We attained similar risk estimates in analyses stratified by sex, in individuals with minimum 5 years of follow-up, in an analysis including individuals with a history of previous cancer, and in patients with cementless THA. In this study on a large and well-defined population with long follow-up, we found no increased overall risk of cancer after THA. These reassuring findings could be included in the guidelines on preoperative information given to THA patients.