Inverse relationship bw MS & lung cancer

[eric593]

Interesting, considering that there seems to be some relationship between smoking & MS. At least we're less likely to get lung cancer from it anyway:

QJM. 2010 May 20. [Epub ahead of print]

Multiple sclerosis and lung cancer: an unexpected inverse association.
Handel AE, Joseph A, Ramagopalan SV.

From the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Department of Clinical Neurology, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.

Abstract
Multiple sclerosis is associated with a decreased risk of cancer. Smoking is a risk factor both for multiple sclerosis and lung cancer. We performed a meta-analysis on studies of cancer frequency in multiple sclerosis. Surprisingly, we found that the risk of lung cancer is reduced in multiple sclerosis [odds ratio 0.67 (95% confidence interval 0.59-0.76) P < 0.00001]. Since this does not appear to be secondary to altered smoking behaviour, we hypothesise that this may be secondary to altered immune surveillance.

PMID: 20488868 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]