SynthesisAnnals of medicine2025
Risk of cancer in patients with thalassemia and sickle cell disease: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Annals of medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Gene Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease: Practice Recommendations from the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy.Transplantation and cellular therapy · 2026Guideline
- Should Sickle Cell Disease Be Considered a Cancer Predisposition Syndrome?Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Curative Approach to the Treatment of Beta-Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Disease with Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- When Blood Disorders Meet Cancer: Uncovering the Oncogenic Landscape of Sickle Cell Disease.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIndividuals with thalassemia or sickle cell disease (SCD) are at an elevated risk of developing cancer, yet the full extent of this risk remains inadequately characterised.
methodsWe conducted a systematic review using three databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE and Scopus) to compare the cancer risk in patients with thalassemia and SCD with that of the general population. Secondly, we assessed the impact of other putative risk factors in patients with thalassemia and SCD on cancer risk.
resultsFive studies from four countries were included, encompassing a total of 24,439 individuals overall. The risk estimates of developing cancer were highly variable, being affected by study design, population and comparators recruited, and type of cancer. The results showed an elevated cancer risk in SCD and thalassemia patient groups, with the highest incidence observed for hematologic malignancies (especially myeloid leukaemia in SCD patients). Patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia had a significantly higher overall cancer risk, particularly hepatocellular carcinoma, compared to both non-transfusion-dependent patients and the general population. Other key factors seem to contribute to the increased cancer risk besides transfusion dependency, viral infections, and use of iron chelators. However, people with hemoglobinopathies appeared to be at lower risk of breast and prostate cancer compared to the general population. DISCUSSION: The findings are limited by variability among studies, including differences in control groups, inconsistent reporting of outcomes, and missing assessments of confounding factors. Therefore, future research with robust methods is essential to improve cancer surveillance and develop targeted prevention strategies for high-risk populations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.