Has anyone heard of a correlation between using the anti-gout (and anti-inflammatory) medication, colchicine, and the development of multiple myeloma? Or were any of you on colchicine before your multiple myeloma was diagnosed?
I found an old article (dated in mid 1970's) from the British Medical Journal (link to PDF of full text) that suggests a relationship. The article states that 3 of 25 patients taking colchicine and sulphinpyrazone for gout developed fatal blood dycrasias.
I also found a number of online references to the possibility of colchicine use causing multiple myeloma. See, for example,
http://factmed.com/study-COLCHICINE-causing-MULTIPLE%20MYELOMA.php, and
http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/pharm/colchic.htm#SectionTitle:2.1
(Main risks and target organs).
I was on colchicine for a year before my blood tests showed my MGUS. I am now wondering if I should discontinue using the medication in case it is contributing to the continued rise in my monoclonal protein.
Thanks for any help with this!
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Re: Multiple myeloma caused by colchicine?
Hello Helen, and I'm sorry to welcome you to the Beacon family.
During drug development and clinical trials, the FDA requires drug manufacturers to report any and all adverse events, even if it is known that the events were not caused by the drug itself. These events must also be documented in the drug literature, as seen in your second reference.
Your first reference is a study done over 8 years (2004 - 2012) with over 5400 patients; 32 of those patients were diagnosed with multiple myeloma over that period of time, which is 0.07% a year. At that rate, and using the current US population of 318 million, the incidence of multiple myeloma would be 22,260 annually, which is less than the number of annual cases of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. I think statistically this is what you would expect whether these patients were on colchicine or not.
Every drug we take has a risk of side effects and adverse reactions, and we need to weigh the benefit / risk ratio carefully before taking anything. Gout can be very painful and debilitating and colchicine is a very effective treatment for acute gout attacks. With proper control and monitoring of uric acid levels, the attacks can be prevented. Allopurinol is very effective in controlling uric acid. If you are not taking allopurinol, ask your doctor about it.
Hopefully your MGUS will not develop into active disease. We all at one time have asked ourselves and our doctors how did we get this disease. Since that question can't be answered with any accuracy, the more important question to ask is how do we monitor and treat the disease.
I wish you the very best.
During drug development and clinical trials, the FDA requires drug manufacturers to report any and all adverse events, even if it is known that the events were not caused by the drug itself. These events must also be documented in the drug literature, as seen in your second reference.
Your first reference is a study done over 8 years (2004 - 2012) with over 5400 patients; 32 of those patients were diagnosed with multiple myeloma over that period of time, which is 0.07% a year. At that rate, and using the current US population of 318 million, the incidence of multiple myeloma would be 22,260 annually, which is less than the number of annual cases of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. I think statistically this is what you would expect whether these patients were on colchicine or not.
Every drug we take has a risk of side effects and adverse reactions, and we need to weigh the benefit / risk ratio carefully before taking anything. Gout can be very painful and debilitating and colchicine is a very effective treatment for acute gout attacks. With proper control and monitoring of uric acid levels, the attacks can be prevented. Allopurinol is very effective in controlling uric acid. If you are not taking allopurinol, ask your doctor about it.
Hopefully your MGUS will not develop into active disease. We all at one time have asked ourselves and our doctors how did we get this disease. Since that question can't be answered with any accuracy, the more important question to ask is how do we monitor and treat the disease.
I wish you the very best.
-
Dano - Who do you know with myeloma?: Me
- When were you/they diagnosed?: Jan 2014
- Age at diagnosis: 65
Re: Multiple myeloma caused by colchicine?
Hi Dano,
Thank you so much for the informative reply.
I do think I could be focusing on the "why" too much. I was concerned that there could be many others taking colchicine who perhaps did not think to correlate the two, since colchicine is so common. I was also trying to think of anything that could be causing my M-spike to slowly, but continually, rise with each new blood test.
All the best to you and thanks again for your encouraging post.
Thank you so much for the informative reply.
I do think I could be focusing on the "why" too much. I was concerned that there could be many others taking colchicine who perhaps did not think to correlate the two, since colchicine is so common. I was also trying to think of anything that could be causing my M-spike to slowly, but continually, rise with each new blood test.
All the best to you and thanks again for your encouraging post.
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