Does MS cause breast cancer?

[DonnaD]

Half a year ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was mild and I'm almost done with radiation that followed chemo. I discussed it all on "the Ladies' room forum and not looking to discuss that here now. But something I heard was interesting and wondered if other people know about this.

Yesterday I took a survey at the cancer center (they paid me $25 for my time ). It was mainly about emotional issues and I told the tester that I'm probably throwing their statistics cause I've been sick with MS for 30 years and I wasn't suddenly not feeling 100% healthy (I haven't in years...). I've already learned to deal with everything (sort of)

So the tester told me that I was the 2nd lady that day that she interviewed who had breast cancer and MS. She said it's very common. I asked her if the MS drugs are what causes the breast cancer. She said No, it's an autoimmune disease and that's why your body can't fight other illnesses so well.

So what do you think? She also said MS and Breast cancer seem to be the "winning" combination.

[jreagan70]

In a couple of recent studies, the risk of breast cancer was not found to be higher in MS than expected, and one of them actually suggested that there is a protective effect of MS on breast cancer.





A systematic review of the incidence and prevalence of cancer in multiple sclerosis.


Mult Scler. 2015 Mar;21(3):294-304. doi: 10.1177/1352458514564489. Epub 2014 Dec 22.

Marrie RA¹, Reider N², Cohen J³, Stuve O⁴, Trojano M⁵, Sorensen PS⁶, Reingold SC⁷, Cutter G⁸.

Abstract


BACKGROUND: Studies of cancer incidence and prevalence in multiple sclerosis (MS) have produced conflicting results.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence and prevalence of cancer in persons with MS and review the quality of included studies.

METHODS: We searched the PUBMED, SCOPUS, Web of Knowledge, and EMBASE databases, conference proceedings, and reference lists of all articles retrieved. Abstracts were screened for relevance by two reviewers. Data from included articles were captured using a standardized form, and the abstraction was verified by a second reviewer. We assessed quality of the included studies. We quantitatively assessed studies using the I (2) statistic, and conducted meta-analyses for population-based studies.

RESULTS: We identified 38 studies. Estimates for incidence and prevalence varied substantially for most cancers. In population-based studies, cervical, breast, and digestive cancers had the highest incidence. The risk of meningiomas and urinary system cancers appeared higher than expected, while the risks of pancreatic, ovarian, prostate and testicular cancer were lower than expected.

CONCLUSION: The complexity of understanding cancer risk in MS is augmented by inconsistencies in study design, and the relative paucity of age, sex and ethnicity-specific risk estimates from which the strong impact of age on the incidence of cancers can be assessed.


Multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.

J Neurol Sci. 2015 Jun 22. pii: S0022-510X(15)00374-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2015.06.033. [Epub ahead of print]

O'Malley PW, Mulla ZD, Nesic O.

Abstract


Multiple sclerosis (MS) and breast cancer (BC) share common features; most notably, both are more frequent in women than in men. In addition to the involvement of sex hormones, a number of genetic and pharmacological studies support a possible relationship between these two diseases. However, there are no conclusive epidemiological findings related to MS and BC worldwide, and there are no recent data for the US population. We conducted a case-control study using a hospital inpatient discharge dataset (21,536 cases and two control series totaling 59,581 controls) from the Texas Health Care Information Collection. We assessed occurrence of MS in BC cases and in two control series: diabetes mellitus type II, and open wounds. After controlling for age, race-ethnicity, and health insurance status, a statistically significant protective association was detected: BC cases were 45% less likely than diabetic controls to have MS (OR=0.55, 95% CI=0.37-0.81), and 63% less likely than open wound controls to have MS (OR=0.37, 95% CI=0.21-0.66). Our study presented here is the only current assessment of the association between MS and BC in the USA and suggests a protective effect of MS on BC in the hospitalized population.

[dyin_myelin]

I think that actually you are right. DMDs do suppress your immune system, which plays a role in cancer prevention. Copaxone was linked to breast cancer in an Israeli study. In fact, before DMDs it was thought that having MS was part of a haplotype for not getting cancer because the rates were so much lower than the general population.

[Seasha]

I had never heard of this, Donna, but an article from Neurology Journal says there is an increased frequency of that.

http://www.neurology.org/content/82/...plement/P6.176

"CONCLUSIONS: We identified an increased frequency of BC in MS compared to other common malignancies, warranting further study. Tissue-specific suppression of estrogen by vitamin D occurs within the breast. Identifying local influences reflecting the complex interactions of vitamin D and estrogen within MS tissues or BC cells may provide greater insight into the etiology, prevention and treatment of these diseases.Study Support: None."

There is also this from NIH- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15754125 in which it states "Female MS patients treated with glatiramer acetate showed an elevated rate of breast cancer and all MS patients treated with beta-interferons showed an elevated risk of non-breast cancers though not statistically significant (p = 0.122 and 0.072, respectively). Further study is needed to assess possible associations between long-term exposure to the novel immunomodulatory treatments in MS and rate of cancer."

Note from both these articles state > that these warrant further study.

HOWEVER, Science Direct has this to say- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...22510X15003743

"There are no conclusive epidemiological findings related to MS and BC worldwide, and there are no recent data for the US population. Our study suggests a protective effect of multiple sclerosis on breast cancer in the hospitalized population."