Scleroderma and Cancer: A Mechanistic Link? Autoantibody subsets and disease phenotype may determine risk

Previous research has shown that scleroderma patients who were antipol-positive and developed cancer close to the time of their scleroderma diagnosis had mutations at the POLR3A locus, which encodes for RNA polymerase III in their tumors, "with both mutation-specific and cross-reactive immune responses seen," Shah et al noted. "These data strongly suggest that alterations of autoantigen sequence in cancers may trigger antitumor immune responses that spread to the wild-type molecule, resulting in autoimmunity." https://www.medpagetoday.com/rheumatology/generalrheumatology/72560?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2018-04-27&eun=g721819d0r&pos=4&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Headlines%202018-04-27&utm_term=Daily%20Headlines%20-%20Active%20User%20-%20180%20days