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Lymphoma risk higher with family history of blood cancer

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 October 2005, 12:36 CDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Having a family history of hematopoietic malignancy -- cancers of the blood or bone marrow, such as leukemia and lymphoma -- roughly doubles a person's risk of developing the most common types of lymphoma -- non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma, a new study shows.

Some studies have suggested that malignant lymphomas are more common among people with a family history of cancer of the blood, but much of this research has been limited by small sample size and reliance on self-reporting for information on family history, researchers note in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

To get a clearer picture of the magnitude of increased risk, Dr. Ellen T. Chang of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and her colleagues used validated family data from the Swedish Multi-Generation Register and Cancer Register including 1506 lymphoma patients and 1229 cancer-free controls.

The researchers found that having a mother, sister or other "first-degree" relative with a blood cancer was associated with an approximately two-fold increased risk of non-Hodgkin or Hodgkin lymphoma.

The researchers found no difference in the effect of several environmental factors, such as occupational exposure to organic solvents or pesticides, body mass index, cigarette smoking and homosexual intercourse, on non-Hodgkin lymphoma risk based on whether the disease was familial or "sporadic."

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, October 5, 2005.

Source: REUTERS

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