[foley022Participant]

Hi, my older brother (now 62) was diagnosed with multiple Myeloma about 3 years ago. Since then, he has responded well to his cancer treatment and is currently in remission. Since the diagnosis, we as a family have often discussed the possible cause of his cancer. He always lead a very healthy lifestyle: never took drugs, never smoked, very low alcohol consumption, took regular exercise and ate extremely healthily. He has an identical twin brother who was tested but showed no signs of the cancer despite the fact that they lead very similar lives growing up in the same city of Dublin and working at the same job (telecoms). He was never exposed to any hazardous chemicals or dangerous RF radiation in his lifetime.

The one thing that rankles with us is the fact that he donated over 100 pints of blood and a lot of those donations were plasma. When you donate plasma, you donate blood using specialist equipment which circulates your blood back to you after removing the plasma. As you all know, Myeloma is a cancer that develops from cells in the bone marrow called plasma cells. Plasma cells develop from a type of white blood cell called B lymphocytes. In myeloma, too many plasma cells are made and they are all of the same type which crowd the bone marrow.

Is it possible that over time, my brother’s body started to create too many plasma cells as a result of his multiple plasma donations coupled with some individual characteristic of his such as blood type ?

Has there been any medical studies carried out to identify a possible correlation between blood donors and Myeloma ?

Apologies if I have posted this question in the wrong place.

Regards

[mark-j-underwoodParticipant]

To be honest I’ve never come across this line of thinking, but it falls outside the current suspected causes of Myeloma to my knowledge.

In respect of hazardous chemicals, we are bombarded daily by small dose exposure to toxic chemicals & materials. Most of the household cleaning materials are highly toxic, and plastic is oil based in the main. The manufacture, use and disposal of various plastics can pose numerous health risks, including the risk of cancer. A model example of carcinogenic risk from plastics is provided by polyvinyl chloride, since it is composed of the known human carcinogen vinyl chloride. We spend 30% more time indoors than 40 years ago, yet our man made furnishings and fabrics are well know to produce toxic chemicals. Don’t even get me started on air pollution !

[foley022Participant]

Thanks Mark.

How difficult would it be though to carry out a quick straw poll among Myeloma patients or relatives of deceased patients to find out how many had donated blood or plasma prior to their diagnosis ? Is there an any easy way to carry this out ?

[mark-j-underwoodParticipant]

Hi, Well there is no such thing as a quick straw poll since you have no access to the 20,000 or so Myeloma patients in the UK since data protection laws would exclude you from obtaining this information.

Next, generally marketing surveys only have a positive information return of just 3% and even targeted surveys have just a little more success. I’m involved with patient surveys at a national level all the time and response is low. Collecting clinical data and analysing it generally is a highly complex task and in the domain of research scientists, not untrained members of the public who lack the training and skills.

You have to accept that this sort of research is cutting edge and is one of the fastest moving areas of cancer research, coupled with some of the brightest minds working in collective teams, much of the research is shared globally. There have been many theories and studies on what causes Myeloma some of which have been settled on, but some are wild and belong in the domain of american style conspiracy theory. Considering Myeloma was noted in people way before blood transfusions were in use, where donors made regular deposits to blood banks your theory is unlikely to say the least. Actually,blood banks didn’t happen until the late 1930’s and the first well documented cases of Myeloma, well, the first well-documented case was reported in 1844 by Samuel Solly. The most commonly recognised case is that of Thomas Alexander McBean, a highly respectable tradesman from London in 1850. No doubt it existed well before then but remained unidentified. Of course there are billions of more people on the planet and we are living to much older age, to an age when genetic faults creep in to the cells, not to mention the ongoing toxic environment most of us live with currently, and certainly since the start of the industrial revolution.

Even if you managed to do a survey and found let’s say 75 % were blood donors, it would actually prove nothing since such information lacks the and cross balance check controls essential in scientific studies. In essence, the result would be meaningless in real terms and of no scientific merit.

With all due respect, I would suggest that you put your theory to Myeloma UK, or talk it over with a Consultant prior to attempting an activity which will cost you dearly in time and prove little if anything.

Best wishes.

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