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Increased sex concordance of sibling pairs with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Leukemia volume 18, pages 1162–1163 (2004)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia affecting around 2% of the population.1 Familial aggregation of the disease is well recognised, with epidemiological studies showing three- to seven-fold increases in risk of CLL in relatives of affected individuals.1 Although part of the familial clustering observed is likely to be mediated through inherited factors a robust model of disease inheritance has not been established and to date no gene, which when mutated in the germline, has been shown to confer susceptibility to the disease.1 It is probable that disease susceptibility is mediated in part by both genetic and nongenetic factors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the Leukemia Research Fund. We thank A Berrebi, V Callea, S Capalbo, M Di Stefano, JR Duncan, M Dyer, V Joensson, AW Langerak, A Manoharan, FR Mauro, S Nag, I Ribeiro, P Stark, D Westerman, and J Wiley for their invaluable collection of affected sib pairs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Cancer Genetics, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, UK

    G S Sellick, R Allinson & R S Houlston

  2. Section of Haemato-Oncology, Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK

    E Matutes & D Catovsky

Authors
  1. G S Sellick
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  2. R Allinson
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  3. E Matutes
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  4. D Catovsky
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  5. R S Houlston
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Correspondence to R S Houlston.

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Sellick, G., Allinson, R., Matutes, E. et al. Increased sex concordance of sibling pairs with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Leukemia 18, 1162–1163 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403360

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