Patients with psoriasis are more likely than the general population to receive a diagnosis of malignant lymphoma, a large Danish study has found.

Malignant lymphomas are known to occur more frequently among patients with chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as Sjögren’s syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis, but whether the risk of lymphoma is greater in psoriasis has been a subject of controversy; some, but not all, studies have found an increased risk, and data from larger studies are limited.

Results from one of the largest studies to date, which quantifies the five-year risk of new-onset Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) [excluding cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL)] and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) in patients with psoriasis, were presented at the Psoriasis: From Gene to Clinic International Congress in London on Thursday 30th November.