Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathy-Associated Cancer: A Review of Risk Factors and Screening Recommendations

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) are a group of rare autoimmune diseases that are characterized by autoimmune myositis. However, systemic extramuscular manifestations are frequently observed. IIMs have been associated with cancer, and given the increased frequency of co-incident cancers in IIM, malignancy screening in newly diagnosed IIM patients is an important consideration. That being said, cancer risk varies across IIM subtypes, antibody specificities, and with clinicodemographic factors. As such, cancer screening should be tailored using a risk stratification approach. This review discusses the evidence regarding cancer risk in IIM, as well as recently-published guidelines for cancer screening in IIM.