Hi All,
Hopefully, not many of us will need to be concerned about this risk, but we need to keep it in mind, especially if we're being treated for rheumatoid arthritis. The group of immune system suppressing drugs known as anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor, (anti-TNF), drugs, has been linked to several cases of lung cancer. It seems to pose the greatest risk for ex-smokers who take the meds. This group of medications includes adalimumab, (Humira), etanercept, (Enbrel), and infliximab, (Remicade).
These are powerful drugs, and are often prescribed for serious RA cases. Many patients with Crohn's and UC are also taking one of them, and often getting very good control of their symptoms. A few patients with MC have found that when they were prescribed one of these drugs to treat their RA, their MC symptoms also disappeared. Based on that history, I suspect that it may be likely that it is only a matter of time before some doctors will begin prescribing them to treat MC. The greatest risk with these drugs seems to be the threat of life-threatening internal infections, (due to their immune system suppressing mode of action), but now the risk of cancer has also been documented.
The interesting thing here is that the meds do not appear to actually cause the development of new tumors, but they suppress the patients immune system so well that tumors that were previously kept completely under control by the patients immune system, are suddenly allowed to develop very aggressively. In one example cited, a female patient developed a lung tumor that was so fast-growing, that she was only expected to live a few months. When the anti-TNF meds were stopped, the malignancy vanished, (with no surgery, chemotherapy, or any other treatment). That leaves little room for argument about what triggered the malignancy.
Here's a news article about it, in today's issue of U. S. News & World Report:
http://health.usnews.com/articles/healt ... ancer.html
Tex
Certain Immune System Suppressant Drugs Linked With Cancer
Moderators: Rosie, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Certain Immune System Suppressant Drugs Linked With Cancer
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Hi Gloria,
The issue that really bothers me is the possibility that the anti-TNF drugs may not be the only immune system suppressants that have this effect. Apparently, the link with lung cancer was discovered by accident, when the doctors treating a patient decided to stop using the anti-TNF meds, and the cancer "almost magically" disappeared. Virtually no one would have expected something like that to happen. It's possible that situations such as this with other meds may have also been overlooked for years.
Here is a common statement cited on many websites promoting the use of Remicade, for example:
Here's a quote from a website discussing the benefits of the anti-TNF drugs for UC patients:
Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I agree - it's a scary situation.
Tex
The issue that really bothers me is the possibility that the anti-TNF drugs may not be the only immune system suppressants that have this effect. Apparently, the link with lung cancer was discovered by accident, when the doctors treating a patient decided to stop using the anti-TNF meds, and the cancer "almost magically" disappeared. Virtually no one would have expected something like that to happen. It's possible that situations such as this with other meds may have also been overlooked for years.
Here is a common statement cited on many websites promoting the use of Remicade, for example:
The red emphasis is mine, of course. Look how long it took for someone to make the connection. There's no telling how many people died from lung cancer during this time, while taking Remicade, but no one ever gave any thought to a possible connection.REMICADE is the global market leader among anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) therapies and is the only anti-TNF-alpha treatment approved in three different therapeutic areas: gastroenterology, rheumatology and dermatology. REMICADE has demonstrated broad clinical utility in Crohn's disease (CD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), ulcerative colitis (UC), pediatric Crohn's disease (PCD) and psoriasis (PsO). The safety and efficacy of REMICADE have been well established in clinical trials over the past 14 years and with more than 843,000 patients treated worldwide through commercial experience.
Here's a quote from a website discussing the benefits of the anti-TNF drugs for UC patients:
Again, the red emphasis is mine. The pneumonia, sarcoidosis, and abscesses, of course, are anticipated for drugs of this class, but not the cancers. Maybe lung cancer is not the only malignancy risk. Maybe these drugs are contributing to the proliferation of cancer in general, to the extent that they're a significant reason why medical research continues to make such slow progress in the "war on cancer" that was declared over 50 years ago.Overall, side effects were generally well tolerated with less than five percent of patients discontinuing therapy due to an adverse event (AE). As previously reported, other notable serious adverse events (SAEs) included: prostate cancer, breast cancer, pneumonia, sarcoidosis, abscess and a death following Histoplasmosis pneumonia (See Important Safety Information below.)
Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I agree - it's a scary situation.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.