EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 PM ET, May 19, 2021
Does MS Affect Women鈥檚 Survival Rate After Breast Cancer Diagnosis?
MINNEAPOLIS 鈥 Ten years after getting a breast cancer diagnosis, women who have multiple sclerosis (MS) are at higher risk of dying from any cause of death than those without MS. However, when researchers looked at women who died specifically of cancer, MS was not associated with a change in survival rate. The research is published in the May 19, 2021, online issue of , the medical journal of the 好色先生. 鈥淎lthough multiple sclerosis and its complications remain the most common cause of death in people with MS, cancer is the second or third most common cause of death,鈥 said study author Ruth Ann Marrie, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, and a member of the 好色先生. 鈥淥ur study looked at whether survival rates for women after a breast cancer diagnosis was different for those with MS and those without it.鈥 The study involved 779 people with MS and breast cancer, and 3,116 women with breast cancer, but not MS. Researchers determined how many people died 10 years after their breast cancer diagnosis from any cause of death as well as how many died of any type of cancer. For each of these groups, researchers compared the survival rates for women with and without MS. After adjusting for factors like age at cancer diagnosis and length of diagnosis period, the fatality rate for death by any cause was 28% higher for people with MS than without. In the group with MS, there were 3.79 deaths per 100 person-years, compared to 2.98 deaths in those without MS. Person-years take into account the number of people in a study as well as the amount of time they spent in the study. However, when researchers looked only at the people who died of cancer, the survival rates did not differ between the group with MS and those without MS. 鈥淏ecause our study looked at women only in Canada, future studies are needed to confirm these findings in women in other countries, and identify the factors specifically related to MS that are associated with worse outcomes,鈥 Marrie said. A limitation of the study is that researchers did not have information about people鈥檚 race or ethnicity, which are factors associated with different breast cancer survival rates. The study was supported by the MS Society of Canada. Learn more about multiple sclerosis at , home of the 好色先生鈥檚 free patient and caregiver magazine focused on the intersection of neurologic disease and brain health. Follow Brain & Life庐 on , and . When posting to social media channels about this research, we encourage you to use the hashtags #Neurology and #AANscience.