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Effect of parental history of cancer on the development of second neoplasms after lymphoma at the same site than the parents

Leukemia volume 22, pages 879–880 (2008)Cite this article

In Europe and in the United States, the 5-year survival rate for individuals affected by Hodgkin's disease (HD) before 20 years of age is now over 90% and the corresponding rate for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is in the 70% range.1 Recent studies indicate that lymphoma survivors with a family history of cancer experience high risks of second primary neoplasms, which are the leading causes of death after recurrence.2 However, the effect of a parental history of cancer on the development of second neoplasms at the same site than the parents (concordant cancer sites) has not yet been investigated. The continuous improvement in lymphoma survival makes this question particularly relevant.

We have used the Swedish Family-Cancer Database to investigate whether the risk of second concordant cancers after lymphoma is particularly increased among the offspring of cancer patients. The Database includes persons born in Sweden after 1931 with their biological parents, totaling more than 11.5 million persons and more than 1.2 million tumor notifications. (For a detailed description of the Database and its last update see references.3, 4) In our analyses, 3084 HD and 7699 NHL patients were followed up from the diagnosis of lymphoma until death, detection of a second primary cancer, emigration or 31 December, 2004, whichever came first. Lymphoma survivors with a parental history of cancer were identified and followed up separately. The cumulative incidences of second concordant malignancies among lymphoma patients were estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method and they were compared with the rates in the general Swedish population by standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for the covariates age (5-year bands), sex, socioeconomic index (six groups), region (four groups) and calendar year (before 1965, 1965–1969, …, 2000–2004).

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Acknowledgements

Supported by Deutsche Krebshilfe, the Swedish Cancer Society, The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research and the EU, LSHC-CT-2004-503465. The Family-Cancer Database was created by linking registers maintained at Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Cancer Registry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

    J Lorenzo Bermejo & K Hemminki

  2. Center for Family and Community Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden

    J Sundquist & K Hemminki

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  1. J Lorenzo Bermejo
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  2. J Sundquist
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  3. K Hemminki
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Correspondence to J Lorenzo Bermejo.

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Lorenzo Bermejo, J., Sundquist, J. & Hemminki, K. Effect of parental history of cancer on the development of second neoplasms after lymphoma at the same site than the parents. Leukemia 22, 879–880 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404982

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