Breast cancer and Copaxone

[Nenative]

I had a mammogram last week and was told I needed to come in for more tests. Hoping it is nothing and it may be, yet have heard there is,a connection and higher risk of breast cancer if taking Copaxone. Has anyone heard this same thing? I been on copaxone for nearly 8 years.

[Tess516]

Hello

I have been on Copaxone for 13 years. Never heard that about a higher risk. My annual mammograms have been fine. I hope this gives you some comfort.

[jreagan70]

The question of a link between Copaxone and breast cancer was raised by some researchers about 10 years ago, but nothing seems to have come of it. In all of my studies of MS, I haven't yet come across a study that compares the incidence of breast cancer in women (or men) on Copaxone vs. the incidence of breast cancer in women in the general population. There might be one -- I just haven't come across it.

And if there is a study that suggests a higher incidence in women (or men) on Copaxone, it apparently wasn't alarming enough to cause any changes in how Copaxone is prescribed or used.

Several years ago there was a preliminary study that looked at MS patients taking Tysabri and questioned whether there was a higher incidence of ocular melanoma (a kind of eye cancer) in people on Tysabri. There was a small panic until a follow-up study found that the incidence of ocular melanoma in people taking Tysabri was actually lower than in the general population. That's a great example of why one early study generally isn't enough evidence to make decisions on.

If you're interested enough, you can google glatiramer acetate and breast cancer and see you come up with anything more recent than about 2008 and more than just a few articles. You might even be able to find that study of Copaxone vs. the general population that might exist that I haven't been able to find.

[MarkLavelle]

I was just talking to my neuro about MS & DMTs & cancer last week and he said that MSers have a lower rate of cancers than the general population because MS is essentially a disease of the immune system being 'hyperactive' and (at least theoretically) more effective at killing stray cancer cells (which we all have, all the time), as well as myelin.

Since my DX, he has always said that Copaxone is the only DMT suitable for people with compromised immune systems (in my case, chemo & radiation 20 years ago) because it is only a 'decoy' for the myelin-wrecking cells and is otherwise neutral in terms of immune function. All the other DMTs have much broader effects on the immune system.

I can't point to any studies, but my neuro has been a University MS specialist for 35 years...