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I am interested in a simple polling of MSers to get some idea of the co-occurrence of MS with other so called autoimmune diseases and cancers. This would not be a very scientific approach but I am curious if there is a relationship. I do not have MS and do not know anyone personally who does (that I know of). I am involved in drug discovery research at a not-for-profit research center. Our research is on cancer but I believe there are parallels between breast cancer, MS, lupus, and RA that should be explored. I am trying to be an advocate for the so-called autoimmune diseases within the cancer research arena. So the questions would be:

With which type of MS have you been diagnosed?
Have you been diagnosed with lupus?
Have you been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis?
Have you ever had cancer?
What type of cancer?

It would be good if the responses could be anonymous.

Can you give us some more information on the centre and what you mean by 'I am trying to be an advocate for the so-called autoimmune diseases within the cancer research arena.' People may feel a little more comfortable answering your survey with some background information.


For what it is worth-

With which type of MS have you been diagnosed? RRMS

Have you been diagnosed with lupus? No
(and I have had every test under the sun to examine differentials)

Have you been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis? No

Have you ever had cancer? No

What type of cancer? N/A

Sorry I didn't give enough detail. I am at a not-for-profit cancer research institute in Tampa. We work on designing drugs to fight cancer using computers. The particular enzymes I am working on (targeting) I believe are also involved in MS, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. I have an article in press at Medical Hypotheses which should be appearing online in a few weeks which explains the connection. I believe that MS, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis share similar mechanisms but have different consequences based on the cell type in which the mechanism occurs. My hypothesis is based primarily on antigen-driven, epigenetic events rather than immune system-driven or genetic factors. It fits perfectly with the Barnett & Prineas results and addresses many aspects of the diseases such as the female predominance. I offered to present my hypothesis along with some preliminary work at the ACTRIMS meeting in Toronto (sponsored in part by NMSS) but they declined my offer. I have gotten into cancer research because I have seen the dogma in autoimmune research as being too much of a problem. However, I believe I can still develop my hypothesis and help design potential drugs that could work for autoimmune diseases as well as some cancers. I can't really go into the hypothesis here yet since it is rather complicated. I will want to get feedback once it is published since there will probably be an ongoing need to refine the details, give more explanation, and perhaps fix weak points. It should be of interest to those who believe that MS is not primarily an autoimmune disease. Hope that helps explain my question about co-existence of these diseases in some MS patients. Again, some sort of anonymous response is fine with me. It is only an informal inquiry. Thanks, BioDocFL

For what it's worth, there are quite a few people in our gastroenterology dept. who have both MS and Crohn's disease, but you don't mention that!

Thanks for pointing that out. I know alot of lupus and RA patients also have Sjogren's syndrome. My background and work are in molecular biology and cancer research so I don't know alot about the multitude of autoimmune diseases and symptoms. It is just that I thought MS, lupus, and RA groups (as well as others) could benefit by combining forces. I am just concerned that considering the diseases as separate may be a dogmatic approach if in fact they share similar mechanisms.
I guess people do not want to reveal information about their other ailments under this topic, perhaps due to privacy concerns. So be it, I was just curious. I just got the proofs back on my article describing the theory I am proposing. It should appear in the online edition soon so that I can discuss it. Then you will see why I am interested.

It is not that people do not want to share their information-- this post is simply not under the best topic. I will move it to where it belongs (General Discussion).

With which type of MS have you been diagnosed? RRMS
Have you been diagnosed with lupus? No
Have you been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis? No
Have you ever had cancer? No
What type of cancer n/a

With which type of MS have you been diagnosed? RRMS
Have you been diagnosed with lupus? No
Have you been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis? No
Have you ever had cancer? No
What type of cancer n/a

With which type of MS have you been diagnosed? RRMS
Have you been diagnosed with lupus? No
Have you been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis? No
Have you ever had cancer? No
What type of cancer n/a

With which type of MS have you been diagnosed? RRMS
Have you been diagnosed with lupus? No
Have you been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis? No
Have you ever had cancer? No
What type of cancer? N/A

Sorry, time to leave the board.

-finn

With which type of MS have you been diagnosed? SveryrapidlyPMS
Have you been diagnosed with lupus? No
Have you been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis? No
Have you ever had cancer? No
What type of cancer? N/A

RRMS
Lupus-no
cancer-no

sometimes I wish I had cancer because Doctors seem to undertand this bette0although I feel very guilty for feeling this way.HWLPED MY FRIEND DIE OF CANCER JUST 1 YEAR AGO today. I loved here so much, and now she is gone-but she is whole.

RRMS
LUPUS - NO
RA - NO
CANCER - NO

I would like to thank you folks for responding. The female bias of the diseases, the appearance of activity as lesions (ie. specific locations), and the fact that consistent specific genetic mutations have not been isolated, suggests some similarities in diseases like lupus, MS, and RA.
There is a project at http://www.madgc.org/ that is recruiting people who may have concurrent disorders. I am not in anyway associated with that but think it is an interesting approach to deciphering the disorders if, in fact, there is a genetic basis. I am leaning more towards epigenetic disruptions (disruption of the packaging/silencing/sequestering of genes) as being a primary event as opposed to specific gene mutations.