Women with sarcoidosis are more affected by cancer comorbidity than men: data from the Austrian Registry

<bold>Background:</bold> Sarcoidosis is a rare disease with clinical manifestations in the lungs, liver, eyes, kidneys, skin, heart, brain, muscles and bones. There is evidence that gender influences the clinical presentation of sarcoidosis. <bold>Methods:</bold> Data from 199 individuals from the Austrian Sarcoidosis Registry were analyzed using descriptive statistics. These data included sarcoidosis patients treated at the General Hospital Vienna between 2022 and 2023. <bold>Results:</bold> The 199 study participants had an average age of 52 years (±13), with an equal distribution of male and female patients. Nearly half of the patients were former smokers (44.5%), with an average smoking history of 17.8 pack-years (±14.4). Registry data were utilized to compare the prevalence of documented cancer diagnoses at the time of inclusion between male (n = 83) and female (n = 109) participants. A total of n = 23 cancer diagnoses (11.6%) were recorded, with the following distribution: 13% genitourinary, 39% gynecological, 17% breast, 4% colorectal, 13% neuroendocrine tumors (NET), 4% thyroid, 4% bronchial, 4% hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and 4% glioma. Overall, women exhibited a higher incidence of oncological diseases, with 73.9% of women and 26.1% of men receiving a cancer diagnosis, respectively. <bold>Conclusions:</bold> In conclusion, the registry data provide insight into the natural progression of sarcoidosis and reveal differences in clinical presentation, as well as the prevalence of comorbidities, including cancer, among male and female patients.