Clinical analysis of 20 patients with polymyositis/dermatomyositis associated with malignancy

Objective To identify correlative factors for early diagnosis of patients with dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) associated with tumor.Methods One hundred and fifty patients with PM/DM,enrolled in our department from 1996 to 2003,were retrospectively study.The data from PM/DM patients associated with tumor and not associated with tumor were statistically analysed.Results Twenty patients (5/65 with polymyositis and 15/85 with dermatomyositis) were found to be associated with a wide range of tumors,including 13 males and 7 females with the mean age of 51.84±13.93 years old at onset.There was a significant difference of age at onset,gender (male),heart involvement and the positive rates of carcino-embryonic antigen between the two groups (P0.05).Conclusion It was found that the polymyositis/dermatomyositis patients were easily associated with a wide range of malignant tumors,and the age,gender(male),heart involvement and the positive rates of the carcino-embryonic antigen were mainly important correlation factors in clinic.