Crohn's Disease

[palletteboy]

Is there a link between breast cancer & crohn's disease?  My husband's grandmother, mother & 2 aunts died of breast cancer - the 4th daughter was clear.  My husband & my oldest daughter have crohn's disease.  Hope this makes sense to you.

Thank you

[lizziecee]

Hi - I have Crohn's (dx 1970 when I was 24 yrs old) and got invasive ductal cancer, with spread to my lymph nodes, in 2003. I have wondered if the two diseases are somehow connected, although neither my older sister nor late mother had either disease. I have asked this question to both my gastroenterologist and oncologist and they said not, but this was 5 yrs ago and perhaps as technology moves on, researchers are finding an oblique connection, particularly through genetic studies. I have read that both Crohn's and breast cancer are prevalent in the Ashkenazi Jewish population that came from Eastern Europe. As far as my sister and I know, my maternal grandfather could have been Jewish, but the synagogue in the town where he grew up was bombed in WW11 and there are no records. Researchers have recently found a gene, NOD2, that is over expressed in Crohn's so the condition could be due to hereditary factors. I have not been tested for this, as I have known Crohn's, neither have I been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer genes, since none of my immediate family have/had breast cancer. I personally believe there is a genetic link between my two diseases, but have no proof.

Liz.

[lizziecee]

Thanks for your response. I have asked my gastro and Oncologist, but they both say there is no link. I don't believe them. It is interesting that when I was dx with Crohn's, neither my gastro nor Oncologist had ever dealt with a patient with concurrent disease.
I emailed every major hospital in the US I could think of (Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, John Hopkins etc. the only IBD hospital in England,  and they all replied and said they have never had a patient with concurrent diseases. Since then, some 5 yrs ago, I have met a number of women via the internet, with both diseases.  I do believe there is a link in our genetic make-up. Time will tell. I unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, don't have children as I was born with bi-corunate wombs. At least I don't leave children with what I believe are genetic problems.

Take care,
Liz.

[palletteboy]

Thank you Liz.  Apparently the breast cancer gene can mutate to Crohn's.  We wondered why 3 sisters & Grandmother had breast cancer & the other sister did not.  However lost contact with this aunt & really don't know if she or her children had Crohn's.

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

No definite association is as yet documented between crohn's disease and breast cancer though several studies are going on currently.

One case series i could find and is worth mentioning detected a double incidence of breast cancer in mothers of patients with crohn's disease as compared to the normal population.

The link of the indexed peer reviewed article is -

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=16169781&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google

or,

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7582-4H4T0XH-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=237c1e170f0c26c334b9492135a7350d

The journal is Digestive and Liver Diseases and the article is entitled - INCREASED RISK OF BREAST CANCER IN FIRST DEGREE RELATIVES OF CROHN'S DISEASE PATIENTS.

Discuss this in detail with your doctor. He might be able to give further insight into the matter.
Hope this helps.
Good luck.