OVERALL CANCER INCIDENCE NOT INCREASED AFTER PROSTHETIC KNEE REPLACEMENT - 14,551 PATIENTS FOLLOWED FOR 66,622 PERSON-YEARS

It is unknown whether patients as a consequence of prosthetic joint re placement are at a higher risk of developing cancer. We therefore anal yzed cancer incidence following prosthetic knee replacement: (TKR). Th e observed cancer incidence in 14,551 patients from the population-bas ed Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Register who have undergone TKR because o f osteoarthrosis (OA, n = 10,120) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA, n = 443 1) were compared with the expected cancer incidence for a Swedish refe rence population. The cohort was followed for a total of 66,622 person -years. We followed 33% of the patients with OA and 59% of those with RA for more than 5 years. All patients who underwent TKR, whether for OA or for RA, had lower than expected total cancer incidence. We found a markedly low incidence of colorectal carcinoma, especially in patie nts with RA. Our results do not indicate an increased incidence of can cer following TKR. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.