14 ms·

If you take rapamycin or a rapalog as an anti-rejection drug, your risk of cancer is lower - not higher - because it's not actually an immune suppressant so muc

If you take rapamycin or a rapalog as an anti-rejection drug, your risk of cancer is lower - not higher - because it's not actually an immune suppressant so much as a drug that prevents hyperimmunity. [1] Other immune suppressants work differently but it's not a blanket true statement that taking anti-rejection drugs will increase your risk of cancer. Depends what you take. You can read the section in [1] titled "Cancer prevention in humans." > Starting from 2004, numerous studies demonstrated that rapamycin and everolimus reduced the incidence of various cancers in organ transplant patients. [edit] In fact in addition to its use as an anti-rejection medication, rapamycin is used as chemotherapy to treat certain forms of cancer. [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10103596/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10103596/

catlikesshrimp 2y ago
Cancer develops resistance to rapamycin. Cancer always finds a way My point is cancer is worse than DI. At least you can manage DI
- arcticbull 2y ago
  Do you have any evidence that cancer develops resistance to rapamycin? I’d love to read a study. The data I linked shows lower incidence of cancer among transplant patients taking rapamycin than the general population.
  - catlikesshrimp 2y ago
    I apologize for not posting any reference. The topic is well known in oncology https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21389767/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21389767/ Disclaimer: The newer the article, the less reliable it is. There were well disguised garbage articles in the 2000's, but there are too many now.
    - arcticbull 2y ago
      Thanks I'm going to give it a read! Off hand my first thoughts are (a) well it would make sense that the non-rapamycin-sensitive cancer cells would naturally be selected for - but that doesn't mean that your rates of cancer would be higher - and (b) how do you square this with the measured lower cancer rates in transplant patients on rapamycin? My take, admittedly more research needed on my part, is that the cancer risk of anti rejection drugs is because the immune system would normally nuke some of these from orbit. However rapamycin works differently and doesn’t suppress the immune system so even with resistance developing the cancer risk would still be somewhere between lower and neutral.

catlikesshrimp 2y ago

Cancer develops resistance to rapamycin. Cancer always finds a way My point is cancer is worse than DI. At least you can manage DI

arcticbull 2y ago
Do you have any evidence that cancer develops resistance to rapamycin? I’d love to read a study. The data I linked shows lower incidence of cancer among transplant patients taking rapamycin than the general population.
- catlikesshrimp 2y ago
  I apologize for not posting any reference. The topic is well known in oncology https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21389767/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21389767/ Disclaimer: The newer the article, the less reliable it is. There were well disguised garbage articles in the 2000's, but there are too many now.
  - arcticbull 2y ago
    Thanks I'm going to give it a read! Off hand my first thoughts are (a) well it would make sense that the non-rapamycin-sensitive cancer cells would naturally be selected for - but that doesn't mean that your rates of cancer would be higher - and (b) how do you square this with the measured lower cancer rates in transplant patients on rapamycin? My take, admittedly more research needed on my part, is that the cancer risk of anti rejection drugs is because the immune system would normally nuke some of these from orbit. However rapamycin works differently and doesn’t suppress the immune system so even with resistance developing the cancer risk would still be somewhere between lower and neutral.