Iraq connection

[Baghdad]

I am a retired soldier that served in Iraq in 2003-2004. I was exposed to burn pits, oil well fires, and dust storms. I got diagnosed with CLL April of 2018. I'm looking for research linking CLL to Iraq.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Hi and welcome to our community.

My reply may pop your post back up in Newsfeed and gain you some additional helpful replies, but the lack of an earlier reply must be discouraging to you. Unfortunately, it has proven very hard to pin down possible causes for CLL, with the only one accepted associated with military service being Agent Orange exposure, primarily during the Vietnam war.

While there's certainly a higher risk of developing some cancers from petrochemical exposure, in particular benzene, that doesn't seem to indisputably extend to CLL. Per:

cancer.org/cancer/cancer-ca...

"Some studies have also suggested links to childhood leukemia (particularly AML) as well as acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and other blood-related cancers (such as multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma) in adults. However, the evidence is not as strong for these cancers."

There might be an eventual link established between nuclear decay radiation exposure from depleted uranium, (some 800 tons was released into the environment in Iraq before your service there). However I think that would require ingestion/inhalation of the U238, given 95% of the radiation from U238 is from alpha particles, which can't penetrate the skin. U238 has a half life of 4.5 billion years, so this along with the primary radiation emission of alpha particles, makes this seem unlikely: ippnw.org/pdf/mgs/7-1-ippnw...

Long term studies of Chernobyl cleanup workers has shown a higher risk of developing CLL, but U238 wouldn't be involved there: cancer.gov/news-events/pres...

Sorry I can't help further,

Neil

[Zappymom12]

My husband is retired. He began testing in 1999 and developed cancer in 2014. He had a pre-cursor since 1999 being M-GUS or mono-clonalgammopothy of undetermined significance. He was chemically exposed in 1996 in Saudi Arabia. At first diagnosis he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and given less than a year to live at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. His incident is documented. His cancer is directly a result of his service. In my mind, he deserves a Purple Heart after all our family has been through. He’s my hero and all this has hurt everyone in our family. He is on his second round of chemo. First FCR and now Ibrutinib.

[Sojomama13]

Thank you for your service. I can definitely understand why you are trying to connect the dots. It makes a lot of sense to me that exposure to chemicals can result in cell changes. Will that change treatment? That is unclear. Perhaps it could be helpful in receiving benefits. I have received an enormous amount of quality advice and information from this forum. The best advice I received was to go to a CLL specialist. This was a game changer for me. All the best!

Sandy

[Zappymom12 in reply to Sojomama13]

Our Oncologist is young and a brilliant mind. My husband is being seen at a Regional Military hospital. It is a teaching hospital. There is a team that oversees my husband’s health. It’s very hard in the area of pain control. There isn’t much out that but opioids which my husband hates. They have lowered their cancer patient load but did not turn away my husband. Other areas of his health are poor. It’s hard as there isn’t one person overseeing his overall health. It’s tiresome and stressful.

[noeagaman in reply to Zappymom12]

I am also being treated at a regional military medical center. Mine is in San Antonio. I feel very confident in my doctors ability and truely fortunate to have this benefit. My doctor is head of the Hemoc/Ocon department and is a retired Col who is now a government worker. We had checked into being refered to MD Anderson, but my wife and I were so confident in his abilities that we decided to stay put.

I have thought about trying to relate this condition to my military service, but it came on about 8 years after I retired and I figured that I would have a very hard time getting any evidence since I was not exposed to agent orange (the only one the VA recognizes).

Chris

[Zappymom12]

My husband was not exposed to agent orange but his throat burns were during service so though we don’t understand the source there was actually physical evidence and records and then within a year the bloodwork lead him down and our family a very long journey with borderline anemia for the remainder of his service. We had a neighbor doused with jet fuel. Even though his response by other Airmen was immediate it still did not stop the burden of the side effects on his body. Parkinson’s set in before he ever had time to retire. He had brain surgery to help with his horrific symptoms. My Dad did die of colon cancer. He was exposed to agent orange in Vietnam Nam.