skin cancer
 

This information comes from my experience. For those who have been taking prednisone, cellcept, and Imuran for extended period of time you need to see a skin doctor every 6 months. I started with basil cell a number of years ago before my MG. I was diagnosed with MG in 2009 and was warned about the effects of these drugs by my neuro-muscular doctor. He put it this way; he said it was a matter of the quality of life I wanted. At that time I was 69 years old. Well I got 8 years of good life before this skin cancer thing started.
I have had 8-10 squamous cell removed by knife. A word of caution MG does not like lidocaine so he uses as little as possible mixed with saline. In March of this year he removed a large squamous on top of my head. My MG went nuts and I was in hospital for 8 days. I was shaking so bad I couldn’t eat or drink. At the hospital they discovered my electrolytes were very low. After 2 days of IV treatments the shaking stopped. I came home with a walker and had fallen 18 times. There is always a plus to these things. While the hosp ran all those scans they discovered a small cancer in my lung. Guess what it was squamous cell, that has been radiated and just waiting on results. Oh the hospital doctor wanted to remove it with surgery but my panel of neuros said no way.
My latest visit to my skin doctor gave me 4 squamous and one melanoma. Now it’s getting serious. I did discover that basil and squamous can be removed with radiation which no one told me until now. I even asked my skin dr about this some time back and he gave me a vague answer. Melanoma can be treated with radiation but they don’t have enough data to show how effective it is.
Wow longest post I ever made. Sorry it’s so long but hoping someone will benefit from all this. May all your days be bright and beautiful.
Mike

Geez, Mike, haven't you reached your medical limit yet?!!! How is this fair?

That's why I've always hesitated to have more immunosuppressants. We had an outdoor pool growing up, so I'm sure I'd be a pill away from skin cancer, too. Many people with MG don't really have a choice; they need that kind of treatment in order to live.

Have you seen a hematologist/oncologist? They're the cancer experts, not a derm guy. Interesting how squamous cells can grow inside the body, not only on the skin.

Start juicing (I like carrot/apple/spinach!) and getting a lot of dense nutrients into your body. And please take vitamin B12 daily. At least 10 mg. Mayo proved years ago that B12 goes in to the cancer areas in an attempt to heal that. Take the sublingual kind, so that it goes to work in the bloodstream right away and bypasses the liver (which converts cyano B12 into methyl B12).

You'll be in my thoughts, Mike, as usual. I'm sorry you have one more thing to deal with.

:grouphug:
Annie

Thanks Annie. I have about 5 different doctors. All who treated my wife. I love her oncologist. I have scan Friday and see him next week. Not sure if he will use chemo to slow all this down. Tried to read up on using chemo on MG patients but found nothing.
Neurologist are a weird bunch. I had a team of 6 at the hospital and they couldn't agree on treatment. One even said my tremors were caused by the tiny cancer tumor in my lung. Even I knew better. The lead dr stood there and stared at me for about 30 minutes. He was a nut.
Thanks again
Mike

pingpongman,
I am on chemo and have MG. No problem with MG while on chemo so far. My Neuro says he thinks the chemo helps knock down the MG.
I still take lots of Mestinon and 100 mg Imuran a day. Also go to Dermatoligist on a regular basis. No problem so far.

Hope to help
FREDH

Thanks Fred, I go to Dermatoligist every 3-6 months. I go to my oncolgist tomorrow to check on my lung cancer interest to see what he has to say about this skin cancer outbreak. Glad to hear chemo doesn't bother your MG.
Thanks again
Mike

Mike, Any new news? I hope it's all good!

:grouphug:
Annie

They removed the spot but report said it was squam but first report said melonoma. We are checking on what it was really was. It did set my MG back. The surgeon was a real JERK. Took 11 staples to close it. See bunch of dr's in next 2 weeks.
Mike

Mike • Recently, I, too, have had several basel cell and squamous cell thingys removed from different areas of my face ... three Mohs procedures and the rest zapped with liquid nitrogen. I never connected those to the MG, but I'm not ruling that out. As a youth, I logged in too many hours getting a tan - who knew?. I think I'm paying for it now. I do see the dermatologist PA twice a year, more if necessary. Just this past week - November 20 - the NYT ran an article 'Skin Cancers Rise, Along With Questionable Treatments', a real eye-opener and must-read, in my opinion. All best to you.

We believe mine are caused by cellcept. I have been on imuran and cellcept now for a number of years. I just had 5 removed by radiation which I now think is the best method. Ended up with like a real bad sun burn for about 7 days. I had a large one on my head (silver dollar size hole) removed via MOZ and ended up in hospital for 8 days. MG does not like your body to be invaded. In Dec I am going to do a series of IVIG then try Rituxan to get me off Cellcept.

Do you have a link to that article? A lot of my skin cancers came in areas where the sun never saw.
Thanks
Mike

Mike - I don't think links are allowed on this forum, but I could be wrong.

You could Google the title of the article and it will give you options to access it.

Good luck.