Vaccinations/Immunizations and Melanoma Recurrence

I too would love to know as I am planning a trip to Africa in September and obviously this would require a large amount a vaccinations.  I have not heard of a link, but would be interested if anyone has any data.

Mary

Stage 3a

I too would love to know as I am planning a trip to Africa in September and obviously this would require a large amount a vaccinations.  I have not heard of a link, but would be interested if anyone has any data.

Mary

Stage 3a

Jen,

Glad to hear you are doing well!  That is really interesting. I had never heard anything about the immunizations but have to tell you that a few months before my 1st recurrance I had the hep. series of shots!  I was working with severely disabled 5 and 6 year olds that were known to bite. The school district recommended it and paid for the shots.  Now I wonder!  I had been 27 years clear!

I'll be interested to know what you come up with.

Good luck with your degree!

Linda

Stage IV since 06

Jen,

Glad to hear you are doing well!  That is really interesting. I had never heard anything about the immunizations but have to tell you that a few months before my 1st recurrance I had the hep. series of shots!  I was working with severely disabled 5 and 6 year olds that were known to bite. The school district recommended it and paid for the shots.  Now I wonder!  I had been 27 years clear!

I'll be interested to know what you come up with.

Good luck with your degree!

Linda

Stage IV since 06

ASK FOR DATA FROM YOUR DOCS, not anecdotes.  I'm stage IB, had hepatitus vaccinations to go to China.  No problems here.  It's all well and good for some doc to state an anecdote that he had a patient recur 40 years later but that doesn't mean the vaccinations themselves were the culprit.  My doc recently talked about someone who recurred 44 years later but has no clue why.  Tell your doctors who are against it to back it up with data.  If they can't, then I say make the decision that makes the most sense to you.  If you want to be a nurse and have to have hep vaccines, then do it.  I certainly have not read any general research that says vaccines like that are a problem.  So do your own research and have your docs do theirs.  Then make an informed decision!

Best wishes,

Janner

ASK FOR DATA FROM YOUR DOCS, not anecdotes.  I'm stage IB, had hepatitus vaccinations to go to China.  No problems here.  It's all well and good for some doc to state an anecdote that he had a patient recur 40 years later but that doesn't mean the vaccinations themselves were the culprit.  My doc recently talked about someone who recurred 44 years later but has no clue why.  Tell your doctors who are against it to back it up with data.  If they can't, then I say make the decision that makes the most sense to you.  If you want to be a nurse and have to have hep vaccines, then do it.  I certainly have not read any general research that says vaccines like that are a problem.  So do your own research and have your docs do theirs.  Then make an informed decision!

Best wishes,

Janner

Jen,

I've gotten clashing opinions, completely 180 degrees from each other, from oncologists too. Got the same opinion on it as you did, from my UCSF oncologist.

At Kaiser I had a discussion with a radiation oncologist — many years at Stanford specializing in brain mets — on whether I should continue a particular favorite activity, that sometimes can result in crashes, broken bones, etc. He said no — I needed to not have big injury events to my immune system. His general concept was, that if my immune system is all that's keeping my melanoma in check, he said I don't want to do anything to distract it from holding off the melanoma. i.e. if I get my teeth cleaned, I should go on antibiotics. That kind of stuff is in the same ballpark as getting vaccinated to travel to Africa.

My UCSF oncologist, however, said, he wouldn't recommend either of those. That he recommends people just do what they normally want to do. That, the idea that keeping the immune system away from such events, is helpful in fighting melanoma, is highly theoretical.

I'm inclined to lean toward the opinion of the Kaiser radiation oncologist on this one.

Jen,

I've gotten clashing opinions, completely 180 degrees from each other, from oncologists too. Got the same opinion on it as you did, from my UCSF oncologist.

At Kaiser I had a discussion with a radiation oncologist — many years at Stanford specializing in brain mets — on whether I should continue a particular favorite activity, that sometimes can result in crashes, broken bones, etc. He said no — I needed to not have big injury events to my immune system. His general concept was, that if my immune system is all that's keeping my melanoma in check, he said I don't want to do anything to distract it from holding off the melanoma. i.e. if I get my teeth cleaned, I should go on antibiotics. That kind of stuff is in the same ballpark as getting vaccinated to travel to Africa.

My UCSF oncologist, however, said, he wouldn't recommend either of those. That he recommends people just do what they normally want to do. That, the idea that keeping the immune system away from such events, is helpful in fighting melanoma, is highly theoretical.

I'm inclined to lean toward the opinion of the Kaiser radiation oncologist on this one.

Jen — I agree with Janner that you should ask for studies or data of some kind to back up these statements on immunizations. I've never heard this theory before in the years I've been hanging around here.

I thought you were a lawyer. Why are you switching to nursing?

Jen — I agree with Janner that you should ask for studies or data of some kind to back up these statements on immunizations. I've never heard this theory before in the years I've been hanging around here.

I thought you were a lawyer. Why are you switching to nursing?

I am posting a link to a clinical discussion of this exact point, but because I no longer have a paid subscription, cannot share fully.

In a post above, I asked  Ellen if she has access and could fully share.

At any rate, the abstract DOES  offer a basic working knowledge of the question.

http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~pvpQYfr9CgKK9e

Charlie S

I am posting a link to a clinical discussion of this exact point, but because I no longer have a paid subscription, cannot share fully.

In a post above, I asked  Ellen if she has access and could fully share.

At any rate, the abstract DOES  offer a basic working knowledge of the question.

http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~pvpQYfr9CgKK9e

Charlie S

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2583252/

section 3.6 mentions vaccinations. Please  note this is a very small study 🙂

As for your oncs little anecdote, I'd pay it is much creedence as one who knew someone that went to visit a Tibetan monk and immediately had a spontaneous regression. There are mighty big differences between, coincidence, correlation and causation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2583252/

section 3.6 mentions vaccinations. Please  note this is a very small study 🙂

As for your oncs little anecdote, I'd pay it is much creedence as one who knew someone that went to visit a Tibetan monk and immediately had a spontaneous regression. There are mighty big differences between, coincidence, correlation and causation.

I don't know about vaccinations so much but I do know my trial doc suggested I get the flu shots etc…and I am in a vaccine trial!

I don't know about vaccinations so much but I do know my trial doc suggested I get the flu shots etc…and I am in a vaccine trial!