Is anyone aware of any studies connecting cancer and Dupuytren's? I have seen the connection casually mentioned in several studies, but nothing in depth. The triggers for both diseases are often a mystery. I ask because my latest event of Dupuytren's exactly paralleled the onset of my present condition of leukemia. My look back on blood tests matched almost exactly the flare-up of my Dupuytren's after being dormant for 13 years. When reading about the cytogenetics of both diseases there seems to be many similarities and mysteries about the triggering mechanism.

"The goal of the present study was to examine the cytogenetics of this common benign neoplasia. Chromosome studies were performed on the nodular growth of eight patients with Dupuytren contracture, all of whom showed chromosome abnormalities that included numerical and structural clones, random numerical and structural aberrations, prophasing, and premature centromere separation. Numerical clones of trisomies 7 and/or 8, as well as some random structural aberrations, were considered to represent in vivo abnormalities, whereas most structural clones appeared likely to be the results of rapid and selective in vitro growth of particular cells. The disease process occurring in Dupuytren contracture was found to involve marked chromosome instability, as well as some in vivo clonal formation."

This was as early as 1988,

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1715385/

Thank you Wolfgang. I can't help noticing the similar triggering mechanisms. It is obvious from reading that there is a long way until there is a good understanding of these triggers.

"In discussing the results, the authors noted that the WNT gene family includes genes that encode extracellular signaling molecules. Abnormal Wnt signaling has been linked to cancer and several other diseases. The best-understood pathway activates β-catenin, which influences gene expression associated with cell proliferation and survival."


"Six of nine loci associated with the benign fibromatosis harbored genes that encode for the Wnt-signaling pathway, suggesting that aberrations in the pathway have a key role in the development of Dupuytren's disease."

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Genetics/GeneralGenetics/27449