Interesting observation I thought I’d pass on to those interested. My daughter has been in remission from NHL for 14 months as of yesterday (yeah!!). As I look back on the whole episode, I keep wondering about a concurrent condition that arose about 6 months before she was diagnosed.
At that time, my daughter (then 10 yrs.) had started to break out in hives and get stomach cramps throughout the day. A visit to the pediatrician followed by the allergist found that she was allergic to cats (we had two) and milk proteins. So, we got rid of the cats, and stoppped all milk product / by-product consumption which was immediately effective in reversing the condition. What I’m curious about is this: B-cells both receive antigen signals and produce antibodies against various antigens. My daughter had diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Since the B-cells were out of control anyway and were correlated to a genetic translocation, could they have also have played a part in the allergic response that affected her 6 months prior? I don’t think this is necessarily out of the question. The oncologist, when asked, also couldn’t disagree with me out of hand either. Considering my daughter was diagnosed as a stage 4 case from the start, I’m fairly certain a 6 month head start would have reduced the staging as it was a fairly aggressive cancer. Anyway, I’m not a physician or immunologist so I can’t be certain. Thoughts???
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