Risk of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Patients with Chronic Myeloproliferative Neoplasms: A Danish Nationwide Cohort Study

摘要

We wanted to investigate the risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in patients with Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), since up to 50% of these patients experience gastrointestinal symptoms and several studies have suggested an association between hematological cancers and IBD. We included ∼8000 patients and ∼80,000 sex- and age-matched, non-MPN comparisons from the general population, and found that MPN patients were two to three times more likely to develop IBD, but the absolute risk of IBD was modest. In addition, MPN patients were also 40% more likely to have a prior diagnosis of IBD. Our results pose intriguing questions about the causal pathways linking MPN and IBD, which may include genetic, treatment-related and immune-mediated factors. Moreover, it shows that abdominal symptoms in MPN patients may not only be caused by an enlarged spleen or treatment side-effects. Conversely, persistent leucocytosis and/or increased platelets in IBD patients may reflect concomitant MPN.