Selena Gomez – The "One Thousand and First Face of Lupus"

Until October 2015, Selena Gomez's claim to fame included her starring role in the children's Barney series followed by her evolution as a singer and most famously, her on-and-off ("are they or aren't they dating") relationship with Justin Bieber. Then I heard on CNN of all places that Selena has lupus and had to cancel a tour to receive "chemotherapy."

Initially I was annoyed because I hate when rheumatology patients describe their treatment as "chemotherapy," likening it to cancer treatment protocols. Clearly, rheumatic diseases such as lupus are vastly different than cancer. However, medications such as methotrexate and cyclophosphamide did have their origins in oncology, and it is understandable how this reputation is so widely disseminated in the media and the internet.

My perspective changed when I saw multiple webpages of articles detailing Selena's plight. I am reluctantly willing to accept the perpetuation of "chemotherapy" in the media for treating lupus as a trade-off for the important increase in media coverage for this disease. Fortunately, arguably reputable news outlets such as CNN interviewed true lupus experts such as Joan Merrill, who painted an accurate, albeit shortened (by the editor) explanation of the disease. This led to other reports of the different ways lupus can present and the important recognition of increased risk in certain ethnicities such as Selena's Hispanic heritage. Moreover, comments that the disease can also affect men were mentioned.

I sincerely hope that Selena Gomez has attained and remains in remission - and I thank her for putting herself out there to heighten awareness of the disease. Hopefully her courageous admission of her disease plight can inspire other lupus patients with public influence to come forward and provide more faces to this complex disease.

More reports from ACR 2015