posted
I have a friend who was just Dx with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia...she also has pretty severe endometriosis, esophageal ulcer, bad back problems...is there any Lyme connection here? I have heard some of this can be connected...but I wanted someone elses opinion. Lately I think EVERYONE has Lyme...The CML is my biggest question...It doesn't seem to be the "right" type of Leukemia for Lyme...but I just don't know. Thanks guys
Posts: 5 | From Hartford, CT | Registered: Nov 2009
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cactus
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7347
posted
I'm sorry to hear about your friend's diagnosis.
I suspect a connection as well. My LLMD has said that people who have/had chronic Lyme can be more susceptible to malignancies.
She has also given me articles and studies showing links between endometriosis and chronic infection.
Many years ago, I found a link with various cancers and which TBDs they have been connected with... I cannot find that link to save my life now, and I have looked and looked.
At the time, I was researching Multiple Myeloma, and this chart showed a connection to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Interesting, because my uncle had both.
Not sure this was terribly helpful, since I'm not providing links - but maybe someone will come along with more concrete info.
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
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Rumigirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15091
posted
I'm sorry to hear of her dx, also. I would strongly encourage her to look into whether she has Lyme and co-infections, but she may be overwhelmed with her dx and tx options.
I don't think that you will find anything more than opinions, but that doesn't mean that the correlations don't exist! I just had a friend die of Acute Myeloid Leukemia less than 2 weeks ago, after a long, terrible battle with it.
I believe that she probably did have TBI's. She had a house in the country where she spent a lot of time gardening for years. Her dog had Lyme repeatedly. And, Leukemia being a blood disease, well, what about Babesia and Bartonella--not to mention Lyme and the rest??
And it has been shown that there have been more lymphomas and myelomas (if my memory serves) with TBI's.
It may be a very long time before all the correlations are made. Look how hard it is just to get Lyme dx'd and tx'd for heaven's sake!!
Posts: 3778 | From around | Registered: Mar 2008
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Hoosiers51
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 15759
posted
I personally would not bring up Lyme to someone fighting cancer. That person is already going through so much, and the cancer treatment would take first priority anyways.
Being on antibiotics with cancer treatment would be too much for a person, so in a way, it's a moot point whether or not they would test Lyme positive.
I would encourage you to not bring this possibility up to this person in this stage, because not only is there no way of knowing if there even IS any link, but I also think it's just not good for someone's psyche to bring up these "what if's."
Personally, I don't think there is much linking Lyme to any of the problems you listed. Endometriosis is pretty common. So is back pain. So are ulcers.
I'm not saying Lyme couldn't cause them, but how would you know, because those conditions are so common.
I wouldn't doubt that having Lyme makes you more susceptible to cancer, but I doubt that the vast majority of cancer suffers have Lyme. Hypothetically, if Lyme led to greater cancer risk, you still wouldn't be able to assume that people with cancer had Lyme, because cancer is so common and there are so many KNOWN causes. So your odds would be very slim someone's cancer would be caused by Lyme, if you were to randomly select cancer patients.
Posts: 4590 | From Midwest | Registered: Jun 2008
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