Safe for a teenage girl?

[Drummer211]

Ive read that it increases the rate of certain cancers. Ive also heard hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma associated with the drug, espectially with teenagers. My docter mentioned nothing about cancer when he prescribed this drug for long time use.

 

[DustyKat]

I have both of my children on Imuran and I worry about the side effects too. I know everyone is different and in our case I am far more fearful of the side effects of Crohn's itself. My daughter came within a whisker's breadth of losing her life to this disease. I must say though, she was undiagnosed at the time but I did get a first hand look at what untreated Crohn's is capable of doing and I am fearful of ever finding myself, or my child, in that situation again. Perhaps because of this I didn't find the decision to commence this treatment too difficult. Our case is on the more extreme end though.

I understand how hard and scary it is to make this decision and there are so many things that have to be weighed up and taken into consideration. Have a look at this article about balancing the risks of the varying IBD treatment options...

http://www.ccfa.org/webcasts/Risk%20and%20BenefitsTranscript.pdf

The cancer risk is far higher for teenage males but the overall risk is rare. I think the main thing is to stay vigilant with the blood monitoring that is necessary when taking these types of drugs. Did you have a TPMT test done before commencing the Imuran?

My daughter has been it since July 2006 and my son since December 2010 with no ill effects.

Dusty. xxx

 

[Jennifer]

I started taking 6MP when I was about 14. I've been taking it ever since as a maintenance drug (I'm 29 now). It is safe for long term use you just have to have regular blood work done. I currently get it done once a month but you can go for longer periods of time between blood works. Main thing is to get well now and then focus on maintaining remission.