RSD and Breast Cancer
 

Hi Everyone, does anyone know if there is a lilnk between RSD and the stress of it causes Breast Cancer? I just got called back for a compression mammogram and was wondering if this was common with RSD ? thanks, cz

As a companion piece to Desi's post:

Stress does not cause breast cancer (or any type of cancer), and it does not cause RSD. It is merely a contributing factor in just about any physical disease, not a cause in and of itself.

Once upon a time, doctors thought stress caused ulcers, but it turns out it was a bacterial infection all along. Stress is blamed for heart attacks, but the truth is that it merely plays a role among other factors--heredity, diet and age are the biggest culprits.

Stress can certainly be harmful, and chronic stress can run down a person to the point where these other factors come into more prominent play. It doesn't cause disease, it just sets the stage for disease to happen more easily.

-Betsy

hesitant...
 

hello,

Just read your post about rsd and breast cancer. Let my say first that I hope and pray for good results for your mammogram! It could be something completely benign and harmless.....and that is what I will fervently hope for you!
Now, let me also say that I write this post hesitantly because I do not want to scare anyone, especially you, because I'm sure you are scared enough right now!
Anyway I posted a research study that studied the blister fluids of people with rsd and elevated il-6 and tnf-a were elevated in the fluid. tnf-a is tumor necrosis factor and il-6 is an imflammatory cytokine that elevates the risk of cancer and lots of other problems I'm afraid.:(
The reason I tell you this is because there are things you can do to decrease these nasty little bugars! There is a blood test that you can have done that is relatively cheap, about $40, and it is called a c-reactive protein and if that shows any increase inflammtion you can then have another blood test done(more expensive I'm afraid) called a cytokine profile test. This will show exactly what cytokines are elevated so you can take the right stuff to get them back in line! The meds I have researched that work directly against these tnf-a and inflammatory cytokines are enbrel and trental. It has also been shown that taking high dose quality fish oil supplements can combat the inflammatory process as well. I'm not a doctor and I certainly don't have a stake in anything mentioned above, just trying to help, really.
Again, if nothing else I hope you get nothing but the best of news regarding your compression mammogram, hope you don't mind me going on and on, I just truly want to see everyone as happy and healthy as they can be! With best wishes and gentle hugs, :hug:jenny

I looked it up..
 

Yep.. looked it up in google.
And this is what jumped out at me here: http://www.rsds.org/3/research/evidence_report_3.html


Clinical Question: Is RSD/CRPS-I associated with malignancy?

Clinical Bottom line: Yes, RSD/CRPS-I has been reported to be associated with various cancers and may manifest as a paraneoplastic syndrome.
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Search Profile

Databases: Pubmed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...gi?db=PubMed);

The Cochrane Library, Issue 2, 2002. Oxford: Update Software. Updated quarterly http://www.cochranelibrary.com
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Quote:

The Evidence:

The average age of RSD patients in the series is 55 years with the youngest being 27 years and the oldest being 79 years old, suggesting that RSD with cancer can occur at any age.
Majority of the patients are observed to be females. This may be due to a generally higher prevalence of RSD in women.

Carcinomas from the reproductive tract and lung were the most common types of malignancy associated with concurrent RSD. Metastases were not reported as detected in majority of the cases.
The majority (80%) of patients with ovarian cancers are reported to have presented with bilateral upper extremity RSD.

The RSD location was unilateral in most cases with the majority confined to the upper limbs. Right and left sides were involved equally.
Majority of these cancer patients with RSD were treated with corticosteroids. Sympathetic blocks and physical therapy was administered less frequently than corticosteroids.

Twelve out of the total 22 cases of malignancy with concurrent RSD have not reported any noxious event or a cause of immobilization prior to the onset of RSD.
Pain and edema were the most commonly associated symptoms

Comments:

Consistent with the review on this topic by Mekhail and Kapural1, in the majority of cases with malignancy and concurrent RSD/CRPS-I, the upper limbs were affected with RSD/CRPS-I.
While vulvar and cervical carcinomas were associated with RSD/CRPS-I in the lower limbs, ovarian malignancies were consistently associated with upper limbs and in most cases are bilateral.

The aim of this evidence report is to corroborate the coexistence of RSD/CRPS-I and malignancy, and to characterize the demographic and disease profile of patients reported to have had both conditions. There is no evidence of any specific treatment that is different from routine therapy that is effective in managing patients with concurrent RSD/CRPS-I and cancer.
About 40% of the reported patients met the current IASP criteria for CRPS-I. In more than 50% of patients, a noxious event or immobilization was not reported.

End quote:
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Sory if this is disturbing and I hope this is not what is going on with you but I do not think that in this case ignorince is bliss. The best defence we have is our knowlege, we can't expect with the little known about RSD that our doctors know it all or even a portion in some cases, and in alot of cases the protocal will be diffrent because you have RSD, to protect ourselve we need this information, each and every one of us.

I would research it further if I were you and bring in information for your doctor,.. if you need any help let me know ok
and there is also a chance that something is showing a false positive reading.. all my tests seem to do that lately

healing hugz,
Sandra