Cancer mortality among patients with ankylosing spondylitis not given X-ray therapy

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Abstract
The causes of death among 1021 patients with ankylosing spondylitis not treated with X rays (the “untreated” group) have been compared with (i) those expected in a population of similar age and sex subject to the national mortality rates for England and Wales over the same period and (ii) those observed in 14000 similar patients given deep X-ray therapy (the “treated” group). The untreated patients with spondylitis were enrolled in Great Britain and Northern Ireland during the period 1935–57 and have been followed up to 1965. The men in both treatment groups appear to have had spondylitis of similar severity, as judged from their death rates from various causes, but the “untreated” women appear to have had a milder form of the disease. The number of deaths from cancer in the untreated group was not greater than that expected from national death rates, and there was no death from leukaemia. In the treated series the number of deaths from leukaemia was significantly raised (P=0.03) when compared wi...

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