(From Medical News Today). As scientists continue to decipher our biochemistry, we'll be seeing more discoveries of this sort: "There is a fundamental molecular connection between diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. Their protein cascades are connected; one stimulates the process of the other ... researchers looked at tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a substance produced by the immune system that promotes cell death, and two prosurvival hormones, epidermal growth factor (EGF) and insulin ... Drugs that inhibit TNF are used to treat debilitating chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Yet TNF, which causes inflammation, also leads to generation of the EGF signals that play a role in many cancers. ... We are finding that things that once appeared to be biologically independent are closely connected. We are not just collections of independent parts."

Link: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=41136