Prevalence of benign tumors among patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory autoimmune disease, affects almost 1% of world’s population in which myelin sheaths of neurons are targeted by immune cells. Association of different factors and diseases with MS provides new insights into possible pathogenesis and treatment for this disease. In this regard, we investigated the association of benign tumors with MS disease by studying total Isfehan multiple sclerosis (TIMS) records for MS patients registered in Isfahan Multiple Sclerosis Society (IMSS) who had developed any kind of benign tumors whether before MS diagnosis or after it. This study was performed in Isfahan province, third large province of Iran, with 4,815,863 populations located 1590 meters above sea level between latitudes 30 and 34 degrees north of the equator, and longitude 49-55 east. Among 4950 registered patients, 28 patients were discovered to have three types of benign tumors; pituitary adenoma in 22, meningioma in 5 and lipoma in 1 patient. The incidence rate of developing pituitary adenoma and meningioma were higher than in general population (OR 95%CI: 1.110; range: 0.731-1.685 and 1.035; range: 0.431-2.487 respectively) but these findings were not statistically significant (p= 0.624 for pituitary adenoma and p= 0.939 for meningioma). But the incidence rate for lipoma was lower among MS patients (OR 95%CI: 0.020; range: 0.003-0.143) which was statistically significant (p <0.001).

Keywords

• Multiple sclerosis, benign tumors, pituitary adenoma, meningioma, lipoma