Journal of Clinical Medicine
Clozapine and Solid Cancer Risk in Lithuania: A Population-Based Cohort Study
By Mingailė Drevinskaitė, Arūnas Germanavičius and Giedrė Smailytė.
Abstract
Background
People with schizophrenia may experience altered cancer risk because of lifestyle-, healthcare access-, and treatment-related factors. Evidence on the solid cancer risk associated with clozapine remains limited. We aimed to assess solid cancer incidence among clozapine users in Lithuania between 2013 and 2021.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study linking National Health Insurance Fund records with the Lithuanian Cancer Registry. Patients with schizophrenia treated with clozapine during 2013–2021 were followed from the first recorded clozapine prescription until death, emigration, or 31 December 2021. Standardized incidence ratios (SIR) for cancers were calculated as the ratio of observed cancer cases in the clozapine user cohort to the expected number of cancers in the general Lithuanian population.