Question for Oncodoc

[ellakc2]

Hi Dr. Joe,

Have you ever heard of the theory, that blunt force trama can cause

cancer? I was is a boat accident in 1997 and fractured my sternum.

In 2003 my dx of LC the tumor was directly across to the right where

the facture occured. I have heard this theory several times in the past

few yrs. Is there ANY truth to it? Thanks in advance.

Mare

[kimblanchard]

I'm not sure about blunt force per se but some cancers do appear to arise from areas of previous injury. The classic example is the scar carcinoma which is a lung cancer that arises from a previously injured area of the lung. They are usually squamous cancers. So if the injury you had was enough to cause any lung trauma, it in theory could have contributed.

Just an aside, I saw some speculation earlier about hyperthryoidism being connected with lung cancer. I am not familiar with this being reported before but I just saw a new patient yesterday who interestingly enough had radioactive iodine for her thyroid 5 years ago and now has lung cancer. Very interesting, would have never even paid attention to that if you guys hadn't brought it up.....

[Eileen]

My lung cancer (adenocarcinoma) seems to have grown on scar tissue---the surgeon asked if I had any lung disease when I was little to cause the scar tissue to form

--I also seem to get a lot of inflammatory tissue --the surgeon removed some when he removed the cancer---I am not sure what the scar tissue is from, but perhaps I did have a lung injury at some point

regards

[Donna G]

That is interesting. When I was about 10 or 11 my sister and I had some kind of a lung infection. I remember I was sick the whole summer! Really sick, in bed sick. Bothe my sister and I ended up in the hospital part of the summer. I coughed so hard that my nose would bleed, soaking towels of blood at a time. The cough continued all fall. So did the nose bleeds. They were thinking of cauterizing but finally it stopped because the coughing finally stopped. I wonder is this illness trauma? Would you scar from a severe infection? Donna G

[Haylee_38]

Hmmm gets me to wondering. My father had polio in the 50's that left him paralized. In 1982 he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Would polio effect the lungs? He was a non smoker.

[john]

I keep on wondering about HRT and lung cancer my mom was on HRT, a non-smoker and also on synthroid. She previously had goiter treatment, not sure if she ever had radioactive iodine, but I am assuming she did she she was on a thyroid hormone replacement.

I have heard there are a ton of problems with synthroid (the dosage could vary extremely).

Anticancer Res. 1999 Nov-Dec;19(6A):4839-44. Related Articles, Links

Spontaneous remission of cancer--a thyroid hormone dependent phenomenon?

Hercbergs A.

Department of Radiation Oncology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, OH 44195, USA. hercbea@radonc.ccf.org

Spontaneous remission (SR) of neoplasia is a rare biological event. Very few reports provide evidence for an eliciting event or mechanism. The only case in the literature of SR of lung cancer following myxedema coma is suggested to have been an instance of thyroid hormone deprivation-induced total tumor apoptosis. Review of the collective data suggests that the thyroid hormones modulate pleiotropic neoplasia--abetting mechanisms and that hypothyroidism may enhance the predisposition of neoplasms to spontaneous and therapy induced regression by lowering thresholds for apoptosis.

Publication Types:

Case Reports

Review

Review, Tutorial

PMID: 10697597 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[NowakowDA]

What about a severe lung infection? Back in 1987 my mother had a bad infection centered in her upper bronchial area. The infection spread and put my mother in the hospital for a week. Her blood oxygen level droped to 35. She was on 15ltr of O2 until the infection broke.

In addition she took Synthroid for more the fifteen years. In June of this year she was Dx with squamous cell cancer. It was centered near on of her major air passages.

Don

[kimblanchard]

It's possible. The scars in scar carcinomas usually come from severe lung infections that leave behind lung injury that scars in.

[Nushka]

I too, had scar tissue mixed with tumor tissue on biopsy. They said it was probably from the many bouts of bronchitis I had as a young person.

Very interesting topic.

Nina