Table 3.

Key features of previous studies on cancer risk in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA).

	Ungprasert, 2014¹⁹	Brekke, 2018 (PS)	Jese, 2018¹⁸	Li, 2017¹⁷	Ji, 2010¹⁶	Kermani, 2010¹⁵	Hill, 2010¹⁴	Gonzalez-Gay, 2007¹³	Liozon, 2006¹²	Myklebust, 2002¹¹	Haga, 1993¹⁰
Country and time period	NA	Norway, 1972–2012	Slovenia, 2011–2015	UK, 1990–2014	Sweden, 1965–2006	USA, 1950–2006	Australia, 1991–2006	Spain, 1981–2005	France, 1976–2005	Norway, 1987–1998	Norway, 1978–1988
Study design	Metaanal.	Retro	Prosp	Retro	Retro	Retro	Retro	Retro	Retro	Prosp	Retro
Inclusion criteria	NA	GCA defined by clinical diagnosis, ACR1990 criteria, or positive biopsy	ACR 1990 criteria for cranial GCA, imaging criteria for purely extracranial GCA	Diagnostic code GCA in nationwide general practice database	Diagnostic code GCA or PMR in nationwide hospital discharge database	ACR 1990 criteria for GCA	Biopsy-proven GCA	Biopsy-proven GCA	ACR 1990 criteria for GCA	Biopsy-proven GCA, Bird or Hamrin criteria for PMR	Biopsy-proven GCA or study-specific clinical criteria for GCA or PMR
Controls	NA	Age-, sex-, and geographically matched controls	General population > 50 yrs	Age-, sex-, and geographically (by practice) matched controls without GCA	General population(database subjects without the disease)	Age-, sex-, and geographically matched controls without GCA	General population (age- and sex-specific)	NR	General population (same age group)	Age-, sex-, and geographically matched controls	Age-, sex-, and geographicallymatched controls
No. cases /controls	Pooled cases: 39,808	767 / 1437	107 / NR	9778 / 92,268	35,918 / NR	204 / 407	226 / NR	255 / NR	271 /NR	398 / 1592	185 / 925
Method of cancer identification	NA	Norwegian Cancer Registry	Prosp data +Slovenian cancer registry	Diagnostic code in general practice database	Swedish cancer registry	Review of complete medical records	South Australia cancer registry	Review of medical records	Review of medical records + regional cancer registry	Norwegian Cancer Registry	Norwegian Cancer Registry
Main conclusion	Increased risk	No difference	Increased risk	No difference	Increased risk	No difference	No difference	No difference	Increased risk	No difference	Increased risk (if TAB-positive)

ACR:American College of Rheumatology; GCA: giant cell arteritis; NA: not applicable (metaanalysis reporting pooled data from several cohort studies^{10,11,14,15,16}); Metaanal.: metaanalysis; Retro: retrospective; Prosp: prospective; NR: not reported; PMR: polymyalgia rheumatica; PS: present study; TAB: temporal artery biopsy.