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Multiple Sclerosis, Vol. 14, No. 3, 399-405 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1352458507083625

Cancer risk and impact of disease-modifying treatments in patients with multiple sclerosis

Christine Lebrun

Service de Neurologie, CHU Pasteur, 06002 Nice, France, lebrun.c{at}chu-nice.fr

Marc Debouverie

Service de Neurologie, CHU Central, Nancy, France

Patrick Vermersch

Service de Neurologie, CHU Salengro, Lille, France

Pierre Clavelou

Service de Neurologie, CHU Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Lucien Rumbach

Service de Neurologie, CHU Minjoz, Besançon, France

Jérôme de Seze

Service de Neurologie, CHU Salengro, Lille, France

Sandrine Wiertlevski

Service de Neurologie, CHU Nantes, France

Gilles Defer

Service de Neurologie, CHU Côte de Nacre, Caen, France

Olivier Gout

Service de Neurologie, Fondation Rothschild, Paris, France

Frédéric Berthier

Département d'informatique médicale, analyses statistiques CHU Nice, France

Arlette Danzon

Registre des tumeurs, Besançon, France

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 7418 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.

Conclusion 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. Multiple Sclerosis 2008; 14: 399—405. http://msj.sagepub.com

Key Words: azathioprine • cancer • cyclophosphamide • disease-modifying therapies • glatiramer acetate • interferon beta • mitoxantrone • multiple sclerosis


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