What cancers are associated with a positive ANA test?
Neoplastic diseases may cause positive ANA. Some authors have described that ANA is found in the sera from lung, breast, head and neck cancer patients as frequently as in RA and SLE 3, 4, 5. Chapman et al. 6 has suggested that in breast cancer they may be used as an aid to early diagnosis.
But having a positive result doesn't mean you have a disease. Many people with no disease have positive ANA tests — particularly women older than 65. Some infectious diseases and cancers have been associated with the development of antinuclear antibodies, as have certain drugs.
ANAs with a homogeneous and speckled immunofluorescence pattern are associated with lack of cancer, while those with a nucleolar pattern are associated with the presence of cancer (15).
- Systemic lupus erythematosus.
- Sjögren's syndrome -- a disease that causes dry eyes and mouth.
- Scleroderma -- a connective tissue disease.
- Rheumatoid arthritis -- this causes joint damage, pain, and swelling.
- Polymyositis -- a disease that causes muscle weakness.
By itself, a positive ANA test does not indicate the presence of an autoimmune disease or the need for therapy. Some medications cause a positive ANA. Tell your doctor all prescription, over the counter, street drugs and supplements you take. ANA testing can produce a positive result without any actual disease process.
So if you have a positive ANA, don't panic. The next step is to see a rheumatologist who will determine if additional testing is needed and who will make sure you will get the best care for your particular situation.
Conclusion: In conclusion, ANA and related autoantibodies can frequently be detected during lymphoma treatment. However, the majority of lymphoma patients with positive ANA did not display autoimmune diseases, demonstrating the lack of a strict correlation between the presence of ANA and autoimmune diseases.
Antinuclear antibodies were detected in 76 of 274 (27.7%) patients with malignancies and in nine of 140 (6.4%) healthy subjects.
The ANA immunofluorescent test was positive for most SCCs, mixed SCC and basal cell carcinomas and metatypical BCEs.
Autoantibodies to cartilage proteoglycan can be measured in several systemic and joint-specific rheumatic diseases including Sjogren's Syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and ankylosing spondylitis [21], suggesting that undetected or preclinical joint inflammation may contribute to ANA positivity.
Can you have positive ANA without autoimmune disease?
A positive test for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) does not, by itself, indicate the presence of an autoimmune disease. As mentioned above, because of the design of the ANA test, many normal individuals will have a positive test at low titers.
Many healthy people have ANAs in their blood. Also, certain medications and viral infections can affect the results of an ANA test. If your child's ANA test is positive, their provider will usually order further tests before making a diagnosis. ANA test results can't interpret an autoimmune disorder on its own.
In our laboratory, an ANA titer of 1:640 is defined as a “high titer” because of a 0.5% prevalence of positives in normal individuals. Therefore, we divided the patients into a high titer group (≥1:640) and low titer group (<1:640).
Also it is important to note that antinuclear antibodies (ANA) are sometimes found in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases. A positive ANA test does not always indicate a systemic autoimmune disease such as lupus; it may be due to a number of conditions, including Hashimoto's thyroiditis or Graves' disease.
Similarly, Guyomard and associates found a significantly higher percentage of NHL patients had detectable antinuclear antibodies (ANA) than normal controls (19% vs. 6%), with a marked prevalence in follicular and mantle cell lymphoma subgroups [3].
Similarly, Guyomard and associates found a significantly higher percentage of NHL patients had detectable antinuclear antibodies (ANA) than normal controls (19% vs. 6%), with a marked prevalence in follicular and mantle cell lymphoma subgroups [3].
Does that mean I have lupus? If your doctor says your ANA test is “positive,” that means you have antinuclear antibodies in your blood — but it doesn't necessarily mean you have lupus. In fact, a large portion of patients with a positive ANA do not have lupus.