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Rosacea and Its Association With Malignancy: Systematic Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that predominantly manifests with facial flushing, skin irritation, and acne. Rosacea and cancer are thought to be linked by the commonality of inflammatory and immune response dysfunction. Studies in the literature that have looked into this possible association have generated mixed results.
Objective:
Given the conflicting literature on this topic, our paper seeks to evaluate the overall association between rosacea and several commonly investigated cancers in the literature.
Methods:
A systematic review was performed using Cochrane, PubMed, EMBASE, and OVID. Studies were screened for inclusion of rosacea and glioma, breast, thyroid, hepatic, or skin cancers independently. Using information from the articles, rosacea and each respective cancer were categorized as being likely associated, unlikely associated, or as having an unclear association.
Results:
Our systematic review resulted in the inclusion of 35 full-text papers, which investigated the association between rosacea and various malignancies. Among the malignancies of concern, 14 studies reported an association with basal cell carcinoma, 11 studies reported an association with squamous cell carcinoma, 3 studies reported an association with breast cancer, an association with melanoma and thyroid carcinomas were reported in 2 studies each, and an association with non-melanoma skin cancers, hepatic cancer and glioma were reported in 1 study each. According to our review, patients with rosacea appeared to statistically be more likely to have basal cell carcinoma, breast cancer, hepatic cancer, and glioma. Rosacea was not found to be significantly associated with melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma. A clear association between rosacea and thyroid cancer was not able to be made due to conflicting results.
Conclusions:
The current literature displays that rosacea is significantly associated with an increased odds of basal cell carcinoma, glioma, and hepatic cancer. Rosacea does not appear to be associated with melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Further studies should be conducted to clarify an association between thyroid cancer and rosacea.
Citation
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Copyright
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