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Psoriasis and Prostate Cancer - a connection or higher risk factor?

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Posted 12/24/2010 4:50 AM (GMT 0)

It's funny that I ran across this article.  On my own, I asked my Uro, Rad Oncologist, and Medical Oncologist the same question.  I never had Psoriasis in my life until after I had cancer for the  first time (Porocarcinoma).  Been fighting it ever since, about 15 years.  They still don't know what causes it, no known cure, and it has something to do with confused signals from one's immune system.  I had asked each of my doctors if there was any research between psoriasis and cancer in general.  The medical oncologist thought it was an interesting thought and possibility, and is currently researching on his own.  Below, I copied the section on cancer, and the link to the article is below it.

Psoriasis and Cancer

Another study, presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in Miami Beach, Fla., shows psoriasis is associated with an increased risk of cancer, including skin cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma.

Researchers from Health Economics and Outcomes Research at Abbott Laboratories combed through their insurance claims database that has information on about 93 million Americans. They identified 37,159 people with psoriasis and compared their rates of cancer to 111,473 people without the condition; their ages were similar. People with psoriasis were more likely to have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease and to be obese.

Over an average period of about two-and-one-half years, 34.8% of people with psoriasis were diagnosed with cancer. In contrast, only 23.2% of those without the skin condition developed cancer. That translated to a 56% higher risk of cancer for people with psoriasis, the researchers report.

As for types of cancer, people with psoriasis had a 75% higher risk for skin cancer, 87% higher risk for lymphoma, and 22% higher risk for prostate cancer, the study showed.

Here is the whole link:

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/psoriasis/news/20100315/psoriasis-linked-to-heart-disease-cancer

David in SC

Posted 12/24/2010 5:18 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for posting this, David. Just over the past few months I've developed a red, scaly rash on my calves. I mentioned it to my MO and RO but it didn't seem of particular interest to them. I see the RO again on Monday after my daily session with the RapidArc and I think I'll run this past him.
Posted 12/24/2010 11:56 AM (GMT 0)
Wow I think you might have something there too! I developed psosiasis about a year ago. You might have found a early detection flag there. It will be interesting to see if more post on this.

Joe

Posted 12/24/2010 4:20 PM (GMT 0)
With psoraiasis, you have a mutation of skin cells going on, they target certain patches of skin, and pre-produce skin over and over again, until you had up with thick scaly patches. With some folks, it stays a short time, goes away, and never comes back. Some unfortunates, have it all over their body. Some, have areas (I am in this category) that stay for years and never get better. This is where my mind was making some kind of untested and unproven connection.

Cancer cells mutate, psoriasis cells keep mutating, could there be a connection or a sign? This is when I first brought it up to a doctor back around 1999, when I was still seeing a top notch medical oncologist. He thought it was an interesting theory.

david
Posted 12/24/2010 5:45 PM (GMT 0)
I have a patch of psoriasis on each of my elbows. When I was going through chemo, they disappeared. My oncologist said that the psoriasis is an auto immune disease. Since chemo lowers immune response, psoriasis goes away temporarily.

So the connection, if there is one, could be in immune system disorder.
Posted 12/24/2010 6:53 PM (GMT 0)
I have had very mild psoriasis all my life. Never enough to treat and the flares have always been very brief and mild. My mother (age 93) fights it to this day since she was a teenager. She has had every treatment known and has skin cancer as well. She has the nost common kind known as plaque psoriasis.

A few days after I had my Eligard shot in October, my lower legs exploded with red spots that then became a little crusty. My dermatologist bipsied it and confirmed a very rare form known as Guttate or Eruptive Psoriasis. It is about 1-3% of all cases and usually brought on in very young people by strep infection and in the rest of us by emotional distress and distress to the endocrine system. I am not young or infected but we have a lot of stress going on as my wife is also being treated for breast cance for the second time in 14 years.

Connection or cause...who knows......certainly makes sense.
Posted 12/24/2010 7:24 PM (GMT 0)
Overweight ?

Index finger short ?

Any Psoriasis ?

Sedentary life style ?

African American ?

Like meat and dairy ?

Mother have breast cancer /

Father have prostate cancer ?

Ever had unprotected sex with a ****** ?

Had a vasectomy ?

Are you tall ?

Had prostatitis ?

Over 55 years old ?

Live north of 40 degress latitude ?

Smoker ?

Farmer or in an area where pesticides are used ?

etc. etc. etc.

I am convinced it just diesn't really matter much. If 80 % of men who reach age 80 have PC, I haven't figured out where all these risk factors come into play.

While it is interesting to a point, it just drives me more nuts to try and figure out if I could have done much different, if I would have done much different.

I have just concluded it is what it is. I look at the link between smoking and lung cancer, which is much more direct than most of the itens on the list above, yet why can't we seem to get people to stop smoking ?

Not detracting form this thread, just a little commentary.
Posted 12/24/2010 7:42 PM (GMT 0)
Good point, goodlife, not distracting the link at all. In my case, no one else in my family has ever had cancer. My PC is my 4th bout. No one has had psoraisis, except for me. It showed up for the first time, back around 1995 (?) when I was diagnosed the 1st time with the ultra rare porocarcinoma. It's the plaque type, and it appeared out of no where on both ankles, both upper thighs, and both knees. Ended up with 5 ops and 35 treatments of neck/throat radiation to finally rid (?) myself of the porocarcinoma, but the psoraisis stayed on for years.

It was just starting to get better, when I got my PC dx, then it started up bad again. Now some drs say that stress makes it worse, and what could be more stressful then another cancer dx? But I have had stressful jobs pre-cancer days and never had any psoraisis.

Since cancer really isnt in my family, since I am not of African-American stock, in my own case, my best guess, and my original medical oncologist years ago suggested it, the vast amount of toxic substences I was exposed to when young, probably contributed to these cancers. Exposure to abestos, lead paint, lots of formyldehyde exposure in my early 20s, and yes, possibly agent orange exposure from Nam days. Just a guess, of course, no way to prove.

In my young days on the job, when I use to work in machine shops, there weren't any MDS sheets, or safety meetings, or warning labels. If your boss said to dip the bucket of parts into a drum of formyldehyde, you did it. I worked for hours upon hours drenched in the stuff up to my elbows. Who knows?
Posted 12/24/2010 9:02 PM (GMT 0)
It is interesting David. about 2 years ago I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. In celiacs there is small subgroup whose only symptom is a specific type of skin rash ------ about 20/10,000----- known as Dermatitis Herpetiformis. It is an auto-immune disease. Most doctors would have no knowledge of it and even dermatologists would be lucky to see a couple of cases a year. It is for this reason it is usually misdiagnosed as Psoriasis and while gluten is consumed there is never any great improvement, no matter the treatment. My local GP had had some intestinal tests run earlier for Celiac due to malabsorbtion of vitamin B issues-------- these came back negative at the time but it piqued my interest later and while looking up some info on the net about celiac disease I stumbled on an unusual complication-----a small group of celiacs with no intestinal symptoms but an associated skin condition. When I saw the photos of the rash a light just went on. Next time I saw the dermo I took a copy of the photos and told him "this is exactly what it looks like in full swing". He had a few specific tests run and then "he" diagnosed me as having dermatitis herpetiformis after treating me for psoriasis for a few years. But boy, oh, boy do I hate gluten free living.
Bill

Post Edited (BillyMac) : 12/24/2010 11:27:36 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/24/2010 10:55 PM (GMT 0)
that's very interesting billy. over the years, i have found nothing that worked. prescription drugs - nada, over the counter solutions - nada, even spent good money for dead sea salts - nada. just learned to live with it, but makes me too self concious to swim in any public area, back when i could swim.
Posted 12/27/2010 2:40 AM (GMT 0)
My husband developed psoriasis about 30 years before prostate cancer. The interesting thing is that after his DaVinci surgery in March his psoriasis got much better. He mentioned it to his surgeon but the surgeon had no reason to think it was related. Now, nine months later, the psoriasis is back. My father also had psoriasis and died from cancer (not PC).
Alice
Posted 12/27/2010 4:19 AM (GMT 0)
Just makes you wonder
Posted 12/28/2010 3:44 AM (GMT 0)
Makes me wonder too.

I have always been prone to moles, runs in the family as my grandmother had a lot of them also. I go to a dermatologist who believes in zapping every one he sees. Over the past ten years I have gone twice a year, and he generally hits about 10-15. The last time I went there must have been over a hundred small moles around my neck and forehead that he zapped, and he still missed a bunch.

Sancarlos
Posted 12/28/2010 3:57 AM (GMT 0)
Hello neighbor, Sancarlos. I was told years ago that a person with large numbers of moles are more prone to cancer. I am the odd ball once again, I have no moles on my body anywhere, not a one, yet on my 4th round of nasty cancers. Go figure.
Posted 12/28/2010 4:18 AM (GMT 0)
David,

Well, I actually have had a couple of skin cancers but they were just basil cells and not malignant. I figure that was from when I was younger I used to spend a lot of time in the sun. One was in the top of my head and quite large, with tentacles and it almost looked like an octopus. Startled me when the doctor showed it to me after he cut out, but they did a biopsy of surrounding tissue and it was not malignant cancer. That was maybe twenty years ago.

Sancarlos
Posted 12/28/2010 6:05 AM (GMT 0)
Sancarlos,

Glad those were all beneign. I have spent my entire life avoiding direct sun as much as possible, being real heat sensitive and prone to burn super easy. Might be just as well, don't really have much in the way of wrinkles either for someone my age.
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