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Lymphoma

Familial risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma by sex, relationship, age at diagnosis and histology: a joint study from five Nordic countries

Leukemia volume 30, pages 373–378 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

We aimed to estimate stratified absolute (cumulative) and relative (standardized incidence ratios; SIRs) risks of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in relatives of NHL patients. A cohort of 169 830 first-degree relatives of 45 406 NHL patients who were diagnosed between 1955 and 2010 in five European countries was followed for cancer incidence. The lifetime (0–79 year) cumulative risk of NHL in siblings of a patient with NHL was 1.6%, which represents a 1.6-fold increased risk (SIR=1.6, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.2–1.9) over the general population risk. NHL risk among parent−offspring pairs was increased up to 1.4-fold (95% CI=1.3–1.5; lifetime risk 1.4%). The lifetime risk was higher when NHL was diagnosed in a sister (2.5% in her brothers and 1.9% in her sisters) or a father (1.7% in his son). When there were ⩾2 NHL patients diagnosed in a family, the lifetime NHL risk for relatives was 2.1%. Depending on sex and age at diagnosis, twins had a 3.1–12.9% lifetime risk of NHL. Family history of most of the histological subtypes of NHL increased the risk of concordant and some discordant subtypes. Familial risk did not significantly change by age at diagnosis of NHL in relatives. Familial risk of NHL was not limited to early onset cases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Cancer Society of Finland, and German Cancer Aid. No funding agency or sponsor had any role in any part of the report.

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Author notes

  1. M Fallah and E Kharazmi: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

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

    M Fallah, E Kharazmi & K Hemminki

  2. Division of Preventive Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg, Germany

    M Fallah

  3. School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    E Pukkala

  4. Finnish Cancer Registry, Institute for Statistical and Epidemiological Cancer Research, Helsinki, Finland

    E Pukkala

  5. Norwegian Cancer Registry, Oslo, Norway

    S Tretli

  6. Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark

    J H Olsen

  7. Icelandic Cancer Registry, Reykjavik, Iceland

    L Tryggvadottir

  8. Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

    L Tryggvadottir

  9. Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden

    K Sundquist & K Hemminki

  10. Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA

    K Sundquist

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  1. M Fallah
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Correspondence to M Fallah.

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Fallah, M., Kharazmi, E., Pukkala, E. et al. Familial risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma by sex, relationship, age at diagnosis and histology: a joint study from five Nordic countries. Leukemia 30, 373–378 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2015.272

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