Which condition is associated with an increased risk of malignancy?

• A. Polymyalgia Rheumatica
• B. Polymyositis
• C. Dermatomyositis
• D. Paget's Disease

Answer: (C)

Dermatomyositis in adults has a well-established link to occult malignancy. The idea is that for many patients, the inflammatory process is a paraneoplastic phenomenon driven by an underlying cancer. cancers are often diagnosed around the same time as the dermatomyositis or within a few years afterward, so finding DM prompts thorough cancer screening and ongoing surveillance.

Because of this relationship, clinicians perform age- and risk-appropriate cancer screening at diagnosis and periodically for several years. The cancers most commonly associated include ovarian cancer in women, as well as lung, pancreatic, stomach, and colorectal cancers, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Other inflammatory muscle diseases, like polymyositis, or entirely different conditions such as Paget disease, do not have as strong or consistent a link to cancer as dermatomyositis.