Been thinking about this lately since I am getting terrible news from friends. Are we able to taking biologics if we should get cancer?
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No sadly we can’t. I had a cancer scare namely myeloma. Thankfully I didn’t have that, but I was firmly told all PsA meds would stop if I did turn out to have it.
The reason is the treatment for whatever cancer you have and the PsA meds are simply incompatible. It’s doesn’t work to titivate your immune system to work more normally with PsA meds at the same time as destroying part of your immune system in order to destroy and kill the cancer cells.
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so we are a group of people that goes back into a huge uncontrolled situation with our PsA. so sad
Anyone taking immune meds with cancer sadly do go into a uncontrolled state. Say for example you had a heart or lung transplant having to stop our type of meds would be even more horrendous for them.
Personally getting rid of the cancer and hopefully being able to start PsA drugs (I know several who have successfully) would be my goal. No point on having controlled PsA with cancer eating away at you, really. It’s not really going to help that much in the long run. Is it?
yes need to get the bad guy away
That is not entirely the truth. My wife starts chemo on Thursday. Rituxan is the agent which is a biologic agent used in the rheumatolgy world its a B cell type which most of the newer treatments are for
Keep in mind MTX is a chemo drug as well. Immunotherapy is technical term for both chemo and/or biologics. The msin difference is the amounts.
Tenia has Seropositive Arthritis as opposed to seronegative like we have. The only change in treatment our rheumy has made is he replaced her MTX with plaquinel and high dose steroids.
What I’m saying is this really isn’t something to worry about. The goal of arthritis biologics and cancer chemo drugs is the same - to knock the stuffin out of the immune system.
That being said @Seenie is right about another difference You get casseroles with chemo and don’t with biologics.
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It totally depends on the type of cancer and the prognosis. I have melanoma. I have had to be off biologics now for three years. At the two year mark being all clear, my dermatologist assured me there were some newer biologics that were safe for me, the oncologist agreed, and suggested I discuss it with rheumatology. However, a second melanoma was found and now it’s a waiting game again.
Hi, guys. It is Theresa/Tirezza. I’ve been reading and keeping up with things, just not participating. Prior to 2016, I was on Humira and life was good. In 2016, I was diagnosed with HER 2 positive breast cancer. No family history of breast cancer. I was told that I could not take another biologic and I was contacted by AbbVie. I remember filling out a questionnaire of some sort. Thankfully, there are many treatments, chemo and immunotherapy, for the type that I have. Also, I am thankful that my PsA has not spiraled out of control. My rheumatologist and oncologist consult with one another. Everybody is different and what is good for one person may not be good for another.
Also, I don’t mean to scare anyone with my previous post. My brother has been on Humira longer than I have.
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I have Myeloma (and Amloidosis). My treatment for Myeloma suppresses my immune system, certainly enough to keep my PsA under control. I do occasionally get flares of my mystery autoinflammatory illness, but these are less severe and much less frequent than before my chemo. Chemo includes 12mg Dexamethasone (longer acting steroid) once a week. That is 80mg prednisone equivalent, acting over around 3 days. And that is a much-reduced dose than normal (40mg Dex is the normal dose - 270mg prednisone equivalent!). It is very unlikely that PsA will be totally out of control for many cancers, but they are all very different, with very different treatments.
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