Cancer risk and impact of disease-modifying treatments in patients with multiple sclerosis.
BACKGROUND
Prior to the era of immunomodulating or immunosuppressive (IS) treatments Multiple Sclerosis (MS) was linked to reduced rates of cancer. Method A descriptive study of MS patients with a documented oncological event was performed. From 1 January 1995 to 30 June 2006, we collected and studied the profile of 7,418 MS patients gathered from nine French MS centers. We evaluated the incidence of cancer in a Cancer Risk In MS Cohort.


RESULTS
Thirty one patients (1.75%) with confirmed MS had a history of cancer: mean age at MS diagnosis of 37.9 years and a mean age at cancer diagnosis of 46.4 years. The most frequent cancers were breast (34.5%), gynecological (12.5%), skin (10.2%), acute leukemia and lymphoma (5.9%), digestive (8.8%), kidney and bladder (5.1%), lung (3.4%) and central nervous system (3%). Calculated standardized incidence rates were 0.29 (0.17-0.45) for men and 0.53 (0.42-0.66) for women. The incidence of cancer in this MS population was lower than that expected for the general population. Matched to age, gender and histology, cancers in MS were associated with a young age and exposure to IS treatments. When considering all patients, treated patients had a 3-fold higher risk of developing cancer, if they had a history of IS (P = 0.0035). For treated patients, the cancer sites were more likely the breast, the urinary tract, the digestive system and the skin.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggest that MS patients do not have an increased risk of cancer. Rather for several types of cancer a significantly reduced risk was observed, except for breast cancer in women treated with IS. The relative increased risk of breast cancer in MS women under IS treatment warrants further attention.
Lebrun
Christine
C
Service de Neurologie, CHU Pasteur, 06002 Nice, France. lebrun.c@chu-nice.fr
Debouverie
Marc
M
Vermersch
Patrick
P
Clavelou
Pierre
P
Rumbach
Lucien
L
de Seze
Jérôme
J
Wiertlevski
Sandrine
S
Defer
Gilles
G
Gout
Olivier
O
Berthier
Frédéric
F
Danzon
Arlette
A
D000328:Adult; D001379:Azathioprine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D016543:Central Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000453:epidemiology; D000068717:Glatiramer Acetate; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015994:Incidence; D016899:Interferon-beta / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007938:Leukemia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008942:Mitoxantrone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010455:Peptides / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology; D014571:Urologic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology
D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D010455:Peptides; D000068717:Glatiramer Acetate; D016899:Interferon-beta; D003520:Cyclophosphamide; D008942:Mitoxantrone; D001379:Azathioprine