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XMRV and Thyroid Cancer?

Impish

Senior Member
Messages
101
Location
Victoria, BC
So Dr. Byron Hyde who has treated many CFS patients and kept a detailed database and record of them noticed that a subset seemed to have thyroid cancer.

http://www.alasbimnjournal.cl/alasbimn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=136&Itemid=94

The study looking at XMRV integration sites found that it "liked" 16q22.1

http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/full/82/20/9964?ijkey=69be95229610462fb4570781a324e5a8810e6859

16q22.1 is related to hsa-miR-328

http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/5/1/29/table/T2

miR-328 is related to Thyroid cancer

http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/91/9/3584

Hmmm... I wonder if anyone has looked for XMRV in thyroid cancer?
 

acer2000

Senior Member
Messages
818
Its not surprising that a virus that is hormone sensitive might cause endocrine cancer. Endocrine cancer has been increasing over the last 20-30 years and XMRV might be one of them. Endocrine disrupting chemicals might be another... I wish they'd do a study on XMRV where they looked for it in the tissues it likes instead of the blood.
 

Mya Symons

Mya Symons
Messages
1,029
Location
Washington
There seems to be a lot of people with Fibro and/or CFS/ME who also have Hashimoto's Disease (Autoimmune Thyroid Disease witch eventually causes hypothytoid). There used to be this old theory that fragments of the mono virus get into your thyroid and the immune system attacks the thyroid trying to get at it. Wrong virus possibly?
 
Messages
19
I've had ME for 26 years. In the first two years I had a strange thyroid blood result which they initially thought was the cause of my illness. However, when they rechecked it was within normal, which I remember they thought was rather unusual.

Twenty years later an abnormal result again (highly abnormal this time) but with none of the symptoms they would expect to see associated with such a result. I've been told I have to be checked at least once a year for thyroid cancer as this has now become a distinct possibility.
 

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
I don't have Hashimotos but my family has a history of thryroid cancer. My mother had it when she was quite young and one of her sisters developed it about 10 years ago.

Thank you so much for posting this. I hope that XMRV can help to explain some the other cancers in my family as well. People are dying young.

XMRV+
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
About two years ago I became ill with hypothyroidism and had to start taking medication to normalise my thyroid levels, but then after about a year, or two, of taking the medication, my thyroid levels spontaneously corrected themselves, so I no longer need medication.
Because of its fluctuating nature, I'm assuming that my thyroid problem was an autoimmune disorder, and I attributed it to having ME, so it's interesting to see this link between ME and thyroid cancer.

Like other posters have said, if ME (or XMRV, or another pathogen associated with ME) can disrupt the thyroid gland to cause a thyroid disorder, then it only seems like one step further for the ME (or XMRV, or another pathogen associated with ME) to disrupt the thyroid cells enough to cause cancer.
 

Impish

Senior Member
Messages
101
Location
Victoria, BC
Hmmm... This is getting interesting. I only have a science undergrad but it has been noted elsewhere about thyroid issues and CFS. I realize this is from the hated CDC studies but it is still interesting to note that they found a disproportionate amount of people with thyroid issues in their patient group and then excluded people with hypothyroidism. Maybe we are on to something (or not).

http://www.hqlo.com/content/7/1/67#B8
 
C

Cloud

Guest
This a most interesting topic. Like most, I have chased the endocrine cause of ME/CFS around for years only to conclude that the "subclinical" endocrine values were result, not cause of this illness. My endocrine lab values pre and post anti viral Tx, validate this theory. All of my endocrine values returned to a more normal range after anti viral Tx. But, this thyroid idea is interesting. All the traditional thyroid testing I have done is always normal....I recently had a full Thyroid workup done by a good doctor and got a very high RT3 (Reverse T3) result. RT3 regulates T3 utilization and too much RT3 = hypothyroidism (even though all the traditional values show normal). The interesting part is what may be causing this problem.
 

Impish

Senior Member
Messages
101
Location
Victoria, BC
And Breast Cancer

Cytokine gene polymorphisms and fatigue in breast cancer survivors: Early findings

Predictors of fatigue included presence of at least one cytosine at IL1B −511 (95%CI = 0.9116.6, p = .007) and homozyosity for either variant of the IL6 −174 genotype (G/G or C/C; 95%CI = 1.1217.9, p = .027). Associations between fatigue status and IL1B genotype remained significant after covariate adjustment for demographic, biobehavioral and treatment-related factors.
There is also a mention of sleep disruption.

From the recent work trying to find a bio-marker for CFS
The elevations in LTa, IL-1a, IL1b and IL-6 indicate inflammation, likely to be accompanied by autoantibody production, inappropriate fatigue, myalgia and arthralgia, as well as changes in mood and sleep patterns."

Could it be that the screening out of patients who have had cancer is removing some of the people with XMRV from studies?
 

Impish

Senior Member
Messages
101
Location
Victoria, BC
Abstract
Cancer related fatigue (CRF), defined as a persistent subjective sense of tiredness related to cancer or cancer treatment that interferes with daily functioning, is highly prevalent and probably the most underestimated and insufficiently treated complication in cancer patients. Therefore, unravelling the pathogenesis of CRF is of great importance allowing the identification of novel therapeutic targets. It is generally believed that the pathogenesis is multicausal, explaining why most therapeutic interventions directed towards only one potential causative factor are unsuccessful. In this regard, it is of interest that increased activity of pro-inflammatory cytokines might be a common denominator causing CRF. Detailed insight in the central role of increased activity of pro-inflammatory cytokines in CRF will hopefully offer an effective approach in the treatment of CRF by affecting a broad array of proposed causative factors such as anaemia, disturbances of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and altered brain serotonin metabolism.


The best part out of this is that these people are being offered, you guessed it, exercise and CBT. I am not kidding....
 
Messages
71
Location
California
Thyroid Disease is genetic. You must have a familial genetic link in order to have a thyroid disorder. So XMRV would not cause Thyroid Cancer. However, It might contribute to exacerbate it in those patients with thyroid disease.
 

Impish

Senior Member
Messages
101
Location
Victoria, BC
Thyroid Disease is genetic. You must have a familial genetic link in order to have a thyroid disorder. So XMRV would not cause Thyroid Cancer. However, It might contribute to exacerbate it in those patients with thyroid disease.

You are wrong. Some forms of Thyroid Disease are believed to have a genetic cause but not all. See below. Please don't state things as fact when you have no idea what you are talking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Quervain's_thyroiditis

Also from the article on Graves disease:

Graves' disease and work
Considering the many signs and symptoms, the generally delayed diagnosis, and the possibility of residual complaints after treatment, it is little wonder that a significant amount of people with Graves' disease have difficulty keeping their job. One study found that of 303 patients successfully treated for hyperthyroidism (77% had Graves’ disease) 53% dealt with lack of energy. About one-third was unable to resume their customary work, mainly due to persistent mental problems.[9][44] In their 1986 study of 26 patients (10 years after successful treatment of hyperthyroidism), Perrild et al. notice that four patients had been granted disability pension on the basis of the intellectual dysfunction.[45] Between 2006 and 2008, Ponto et al. surveyed 250 Graves' disease patients. Of these, 36% were written of sick and 5% even had to take early retirement. In the same study, 34% of 400 questionned physicians reported treating patients with fully impaired earning capacity.[46]

Cause
The trigger for autoantibody production is not known. There appears to be a genetic predisposition for Graves' disease, suggesting that some people are more prone than others to develop TSH autoantibodies due to a genetic cause. HLADR (especially DR3) appears to play a significant role.[47]

Since Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease which appears suddenly, often quite late in life, it is thought that a viral or bacterial infection may trigger antibodies which cross-react with the human TSH receptor (a phenomenon known as antigenic mimicry, also seen in some cases of type I diabetes)
 

dschlindwein

not according to plan
Messages
14
Location
Athens, GA
Hmmm... This is getting interesting. I only have a science undergrad but it has been noted elsewhere about thyroid issues and CFS. I realize this is from the hated CDC studies but it is still interesting to note that they found a disproportionate amount of people with thyroid issues in their patient group and then excluded people with hypothyroidism. Maybe we are on to something (or not).

http://www.hqlo.com/content/7/1/67#B8

I skimmed that really lame CDC report and also noted that they excluded people with untreated hypothyroidism from their really lame study:

previously unrecognized hypothyroidism was the most common exclusionary condition detected during this study

(excerpted from the CDC (Conspiracy to Deny and Conceal) report)

I'm sure that many of us are whacked out in our thyroid function. Paul Cheney has talked about this in his videotaped presentations. He believes that our bodies downregulate thyroid hormone production in order to force us to limit our physical activity. As we all know, physical activity makes us sicker, so our bodies are trying to protect us from it by downregulating thyroid hormone production or otherwise messing with our thyroid function. Therefore, abnormal thyroid function should be considered a symptom of CFS, not an exclusionary condition.

Downregulation of thyroid hormone production is probably independent of any possible link between XMRV and thyroid cancer, but with the little I have learned about XMRV I am not surprised to hear about a rise in one more type of cancer among CFS patients.
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
I skimmed that really lame CDC report and also noted that they excluded people with untreated hypothyroidism from their really lame study.

I'm not one to defend the CDC, but on this specific point, no researcher would include people with untreated Thyroid disease, because a low thyroid function mimics the symptoms of ME/CFS, and it is not possible to have a diagnosis of ME/CFS while you have a low thyroid function.
Anyone with a low thyroid function needs to be treated quickly, as the symptoms can become very severe.

Since Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease which appears suddenly, often quite late in life, it is thought that a viral or bacterial infection may trigger antibodies which cross-react with the human TSH receptor (a phenomenon known as antigenic mimicry, also seen in some cases of type I diabetes)

This makes a lot of sense to me... It could explain why my thyroid malfunctioned after I became ill with ME, and it could explain why it was only a temporary thyroid disfunction which corrected itself after a couple of years.
 
C

Cloud

Guest
"I'm sure that many of us are whacked out in our thyroid function. Paul Cheney has talked about this in his videotaped presentations. He believes that our bodies downregulate thyroid hormone production in order to force us to limit our physical activity. As we all know, physical activity makes us sicker, so our bodies are trying to protect us from it by downregulating thyroid hormone production or otherwise messing with our thyroid function. Therefore, abnormal thyroid function should be considered a symptom of CFS, not an exclusionary condition".

I really doubt the CDC will ever get this issue in my lifetime. But I believe it to be true because as I stated below, most if not all of my endocrine values have always been sub-clinical (slightly low) as a result rather than cause of this illness. One of the reasons I believe it to be result rather than cause is that taking hormone supplements such as Cortisol (for adrenal insufficiency....another exclusionary Dx) will make me feel better temporarily, but does nothing to expand my stress tolerance abilities....I will still crash the same. In fact, the hormone supplementation will push me into a crash, even if I force myself to lay on the bed and have no stress at all. This says to me that the sub-clinical endocrine values must be result rather than cause....otherwise I would improve rather than worsen on the supplementation. I have tried this experiment many times over the years, and it's always the same result. So, I agree with Dr Cheney on this issue. But, I'm all for having these endocrine tests done to rule out the possibility of an undiagnosed problem. I'm currently giving T3 a try for the first time. My GP has prescribed it to reduce the RT3. It gives me more energy for sure, but I need more time to see how well it will help long term.