Identification of multiple cancer-associated myositis-specific autoantibodies in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies: a large longitudinal cohort study

BACKGROUND: Cancer is a significant complication contributing to increased mortality in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs), and the association between IIMs and cancer has been extensively reported. Myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSAs) can help to stratify patients into more homogeneous groups and may be used as a biomarker for cancer-associated myositis. In this study, we aimed to systematically define the cancer-associated MSAs in IIMs. METHODS: Serum from 627 patients with IIMs was tested for MSAs. The cancer risk with different MSAs was estimated by standardized incidence ratio (SIR). Paraneoplastic manifestation, such as the close temporal relationship between myositis onset and cancer diagnoses in patients with different MSAs, was also evaluated. RESULTS: Compared with the general Chinese population, patients with IIMs and anti-transcriptional intermediary factor (TIF1)-γ antibodies (SIR = 17.28, 95% CI 11.94 to 24.14), anti-nuclear matrix protein (NXP2) antibodies (SIR = 8.14, 95% CI 1.63 to 23.86), or anti-SAE1 antibodies (SIR = 12.92, 95% CI 3.23 to 32.94), or who were MSAs-negative (SIR = 3.99, 95% CI 1.96 to 7.14) faced increased risk of cancer. There was no association between specific MSAs subtypes and certain types of cancer. Paraneoplastic manifestations were observed in the patients carrying anti-TIF1-γ, as well as other MSAs. There were no prognostic differences among the patients with cancer-associated myositis (CAM) from different MSAs subgroups. However, in comparison to those with cancer unrelated to myositis, CAM had a worse prognosis, with an age-adjusted and sex-adjusted Cox hazard ratio (HR) of 10.8 (95% CI 1.38-84.5, p = 0.02) for all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates in what is, to our knowledge, the largest population examined to date, that anti-SAE1, and previously reported anti-TIF1-γ and anti-NXP2 antibodies, are all associated with an increased risk of cancer in patients with IIMs. Moreover, our data suggest that in some cases, anti-HMGCR, anti-Jo-1 and anti-PL-12 antibody production might also be driven by malignancy. This can aid in the etiologic research of paraneoplastic myositis and clinical management. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13075-017-1469-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.