History

Men type 2A, also known as Sipple's syndrome, was discovered in the 1960's by John Sipple.   

In Sweden attention was drawn to the syndrome thanks to Margaretha Berg's doctoral thesis. This thesis was the result of a patient's death during surgery, at that point for an unknown reason. The surgeon asked Margaretha, who had not yet decided upon the subject of her future research, to find out why the patient had not survived. Margaretha discovered that the patient had in fact had cancer in one adrenal gland, and that the heart couldn't cope with all the adrenaline that was produced due to the surgery.

However, the road to today's knowledge about Sipple's syndrome has been far from straight. In the seventies the Sipple patients had to endure all sorts of tests with the purpose of finding out if a person would develop the syndrome or not. Cycling and brandy were a few of the methods that were tried and rejected. Not until DNA analysis was discovered had a reliable method been found. Scientists had found the specific gene that caused Sipple's syndrome, and that was chromosome number ten. As from this discovery all families that could carry the gene were tested, and therefore many could be sorted out. 

All patients carrying the faulty gene take tests on a regular basis that show in good time when a tumour has started to grow. Today's Sipple patients are therefore able to feel very secure and well taken care of by our few but dedicated physicians.