Vasculitis Associated with Malignancy

In patients with vasculitis, associated cancer is believed to be rarer than associated drug ingestion, infections, and collagen vascular disease. I previously suggested that patients with cutaneous small-vessel vasculitis do not require specific testing for concomitant malignancy (Journal Watch Dermatology Feb 12 2001).

These authors retrospectively identified 60 patients with vasculitis and cancer from a database of vasculitis patients (5.2% of the patients with vasculitis, but the database did not fully capture patients with leukocytoclastic vasculitis or Henoch-Schönlein purpura). Malignancies that were a consequence of immunosuppressive therapy were excluded. Vasculitis subtypes associated with malignancy included polyarteritis nodosa, C…