Colleague at work with Myeloma. More than just coincidence?

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This topic contains 2 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  kh0305 2 years, 3 months ago.

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  • #146671

    jbal
    Participant

    So, my husband has just found out that a work colleague has just been diagnosed with Myeloma following recent investigations and is due to start treatment. My husband was diagnosed 6 years ago aged 44 following a routine medical. He was on active monitoring for 5 yrs then started and completed treatment including an ASCT in 2021.

    My question is, is this more than just coincidence? The company import timber and furniture and sell wholesale. It’s a small independent company with a small staff team of 8! My husband and the other staff member have worked there the longest, both 20 years plus approx.

    My husband and I are both saddened and completely shocked and wonder if there is any link between the work environment and their MM diagnosis and if so what we should or could do?

    Jane

    #146672

    mulberry
    Participant

    According to Cancer.net
    “People who have been exposed to radiation or to asbestos, benzene, pesticides, and other chemicals used in rubber manufacturing may be at higher risk for developing myeloma. People often exposed to wood products, such as carpenters, furniture makers, and paper makers, are also at higher risk”

    This suggests that there may well be a correlation between your husband’s diagnosis & that of his colleague. However this may be impossible to prove. I know two immediate next door neighbours who were both diagnosed with myeloma,& have heard of a husband and wife who both have the disease and of 7 myeloma patients who use the same GP surgery. These all suggest possible environmental issues at play. But myeloma is still rare, for instance most wood workers will not develop it.

    As your husband and his colleague may not be being treated at the same hospital, let alone by the same doctors, it is worth telling your husband’s consultant about his colleague’s diagnosis. At the moment we have no national database to record this type of information but hopefully overtime additional pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is myeloma will become apparent.

    It’s believed that myeloma results from multiple mutations over time, we must all have a number of specific causes or causal events. But once we have myeloma, I feel that the cat is out of the bag, and knowledge about how we developed the disease is less important than identifying successful ways to keep it inactive (or find a cure).

    I try not to worry for my children as their father has MGUS and I have myeloma- were we all exposed to something carcinogenic? Instead I concentrate on things I can do something about. But you will have to make your own decision.

    #146680

    kh0305
    Moderator

    Hi Jane,
    Sorry to hear that both your husband and his colleague are suffering with MM. As Mulberry says, we really don’t know enough about MM and its causes to know whether it is coincidence but like all cancers, there must be something that triggers it yet not everyone seems to follow the same path. My dad (diagnosed with MM in 2013) worked with ink and paper his whole life, but then so did his dad and he didn’t develop MM but a different cancer… if only we knew more. I hope treatment is going/has gone well for both of them and hopefully with all the research going on we will soon know more about this disease. Take care xx

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