11 replies to this topic

[Gail's]

I'm checking in mostly out of curiosity but also since my docs couldn't find much information on whether people with one type of cancer are more likely to develop or have a history of other types of cancer. I'll start: I have basal cell (the slow growing kind) skin cancer. Now with CML. How about you?

[snowbear]

I don't have a second cancer, but I do have autoimmune inflammatory arthritis.   I've had a few pre-cancers that were caught early and removed - cervical and colon.

[SusanL]

I had breast cancer in 2003 with 36 radiation treatments.  3 yrs later I was diagnosed with CML.  I have always believed the radiation contributed to the CML but my oncologist doesn't agree.  Maybe the first cancer lowers resistance so that a second cancer can take over where otherwise the body would have kept under control.   ???? 

My mother had 2 different cancers also.  Breast and melanoma.

[Gail's]

I too wonder if it's an immunity thing. When I worked nights and was mom of teens, got a lot of the bugs that went around. So if we are exposed to carcinogens or genetic mistakes as cells divide, and our immune system is down, cancer can result. My theory.

[dede5]

Gail, I am thankful to say, up to now it's only CML and I hope to keep it that way. I'm responding to your theory about immunity. I've always carried more than my share of pretty much everything. For many years I worked 2 or 3 jobs with very little sleep. I kept telling myself I would rest when the time was right. I also went to school, ran a catering business, and raised a family. It was like I wanted to see how much I could take. I think I found the answer, because now all I do is rest :/

[mlk210]

I got diagnosed with CML in July 2014 and then Thyroid Cancer (Papillary Carcinoma) in September 2014. I obviously already had the thyroid cancer before the CML diagnosis. The carcinoma was found on a ct scan I had of my chest when I went in for shortness of breath shortly after starting Sprycel. It's makes me think I'm a magnet for cancer!

[hippychic]

I had Mohs surgery in 2012 to remove a Basal cell skin cancer from my temple. I was diagnosed with CML in August 2014. On Gleevec. My skin is horrible. I seem to develop every different type of moles, and growths that comes along;. always getting them frozen or biopsied. We used a baby oil and iodine mix to get burned and tanned back in the 70s. I didn't get smart about sunburns until the 90s and thought the tanning beds were safer. At 58, I'm really paying for it now. My Momma died of complication related to Squamous cell cancer in her larynx. She was 67. My dad died from Merkel cell Tumors, a type of skin cancer, at 61. He also had battled multiple basal, squamous, and one Melanoma. My sister has had several basal cell cancers removed.

 

Luck of the draw? Fate? Hereditary? Stupidity? The well water? Probably a bit of it all. I know we all have (had) fair skin.. We were always out in the sun, Dad was in the Military, Korea/Vietnam, we lived in a hot, sunny foreign country for three years when I was a child.  Very little sunscreen and rarely had sunglasses. Now I've been diagnosed with cataracts in January. My last eye exam in 2012 showed no sign of them. My dad and baby sister were always covered up though, but not me. I loved the sun and was a water baby.

 

Now I'm stressing how dangerous the sun is to my daughter and granddaughter, but, you know, they don't listen.

[alexamay09]

I was diagnosed with breast cancer May 2009 and with CML the last day in August 2012. 

 

alex

[chrissy778]

Gail I had basal cell skin cancer removed in 2010, My internal medicine Dr told me it was dry skin and to keep putting hydrocortisone cream on it. After two years of it getting bigger I got a second opinion. When it was removed they hardly had enough skin to stitch it closed. The basal cell was on my back. I also had pre cancer cervical cells removed with a cone biopsy in 2004. I was diagnosed with cml in 2013.   

[Frogiegirl]

I just had to put my 2 cents in.....YOU guys/gals are amazing!!!! I have only so far had the CML diagnosis.(knock on wood) I could not imagine compounding it with another kind of cancer  I hate reading that some of you have dealt with more then CML.....its not fair

[SusanL]

Having been diagnosed with 2 different cancers in 3 yrs, and my mothers cancers, when I developed skin problems I went to the dermatologist.  Question was, am I predisposed to melanoma because of my mother (father had multiple carcinomas also)?  He said no, the only thing I have inherited is the skin type that is susceptible to cancer but with appropriate precautions I should be safe.

I think there has to be a immunity deficiency.   I have heard a lot a people have cancer cells in their bodies but it never takes over.  What happens to make the cancer cells stronger than the cells fighting them???? what makes one persons immunity fail???? That is the question research needs to answer.  

[SusanL]

just read a news article put out by LLS on immunotherapy being the hottest target of research currently.