Background & Aims: The Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is an autosomal dominan
t polyposis disorder with increased risk of multiple cancers, but literatur
e estimates of risk vary. Methods: We performed an individual patient meta-
analysis to determine the relative risk (RR) of cancer in patients with PJS
compared with the general population based on 210 individuals described in
6 publications. Results: For patients with PJS, the RR for all cancers was
15.2 (95% confidence limits [CL], 2, 19). A statistically significant incr
ease of RR was noted for esophagus (57; CL, 2.5, 557), stomach (213; CL, 96
, 368), small intestine (520; CL, 220, 1306), colon (84; CL, 47, 137), panc
reas (132; CL, 44, 261), lung (17.0; CL, 5.4, 39), breast (15.2; CL, 7.6, 2
7), uterus (16.0; CL, 1.9, 56), ovary (27; CL, 7.3, 68), but not testicular
or cervical malignancies. Cumulative risk for all cancer was 93% from age
15 to 64 years old. Conclusions: Patients with PJS are at very high relativ
e and absolute risk for gastrointestinal and nongastrointestinal cancers.