Table 1 Age, sex, and reference year adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between first time discharged from hospital with epilepsy (1969–99) and risk of subsequent malignancy by years prior to malignancy diagnosis or reference year.

Type of malignancy	Time between first epilepsy discharge diagnosis and malignancy
	⩾11 years OR (95% CI)	10–8 years OR (95% CI)	7–6 years OR (95% CI)	5–4 years OR (95% CI)	3–2 years OR (95% CI)	Reference year OR (95% CI)
Non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma	0.72 (0.52–0.99)	1.03 (0.65–1.64)	0.92 (0.55–1.52)	0.88 (0.55–1.41)	0.98 (0.63–1.51)	2.89 (1.89–4.41)
Epilepsy with malignancy (n)	41	21	17	20	23	30
Hodgkin's disease	0.86 (0.38–1.94)	1.07 (0.26–4.36)	1.37 (0.43–4.37)	2.07 (0.75–5.70)	1.71 (0.62–4.69)	4.77 (1.71–13.30)
Epilepsy with malignancy (n)	6	2	3	4	4	4
Chronic lymphatic leukaemia	0.70 (0.38–1.27)	1.14 (0.53–2.45)	0.57 (0.18–1.79)	0.72 (0.30–1.76)	0.89 (0.39–2.01)	1.56 (0.63–3.88)
Epilepsy with malignancy (n)	11	7	3	5	6	5
Acute myeloid leukaemia	0.78 (0.39–1.56)	1.62 (0.71–3.66)	0.60 (0.15–2.42)	1.73 (0.81–3.70)	0.46 (0.11–1.85)	3.65 (1.68–7.93)
Epilepsy with malignancy (n)	8	6	2	7	2	7
Leukaemia	0.68 (0.45–1.02)	1.14 (0.67–1.94)	0.77 (0.39–1.50)	1.30 (0.81–2.10)	0.53 (0.26–1.08)	2.55 (1.50–4.32)
Epilepsy with malignancy (n)	25	15	9	19	8	17
Myeloma	0.89 (0.56–1.39)	1.14 (0.60–2.17)	0.79 (0.35–1.79)	0.61 (0.27–1.39)	1.08 (0.59–2.00)	1.52 (0.70–3.30)
Epilepsy with malignancy (n)	20	10	6	6	11	7
Pancreatic cancer	1.20 (0.89–1.62)	0.89 (0.52–1.52)	1.27 (0.77–2.09)	0.93 (0.56–1.53)	0.83 (0.49–1.38)	2.05 (1.22–3.45)
Epilepsy with malignancy (n)	49	15	18	17	16	18
Controls	424	147	136	159	172	75