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Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

Ethnic and geographic diversity of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

Leukemia volume 35, pages 433–439 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

East Asians, Asian Indians and Amerindians have a five to ten-fold lower age-adjusted incidence rate (AAIR) of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) compared with persons of predominately European descent. The data we review suggest a genetic rather than environmental basis for this discordance. All these populations arose from a common African Black ancestor but different clades have different admixture with archaic hominins including Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo erectus, which may explain different CLL incidences. There are also some differences in clinical laboratory and molecular co-variates of CLL between these populations. Because the true age-adjusted incidence rate in African Blacks is unknown it is not possible to determine whether modern Europeans acquired susceptibility to CLL or the other populations lost susceptibility and/or developed resistance to developing CLL. We also found other B-cell lymphomas and T- and NK-cell cancers had different incidences in the populations we studied. These data provide clues to determining the cause(s) of CLL.

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Fig. 1: Pattern of human migration from Africa to Asia and Europe.
Fig. 2: Mutations in CLL.

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Acknowledgements

Profs. Robin Foa’ (Universita “La Sapienza” di Roma), Kanti Rai (Northwell Health), Daniel Catovsky, Gerald Marti (National Institutes of Health) and Marc Goodman (Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre) kindly reviewed the typescript. RPG acknowledges support from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre funding scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peking University Peoples Hospital; Peking University Institute of Hematology, Beijing, China

    Shenmiao Yang & Xiaojun Huang

  2. Little Flower Hospital and Research Centre, Kerala, India

    Abraham M. Varghese

  3. St James University Hospital, Leeds, UK

    Abraham M. Varghese

  4. Clinical Haematology and Stem Cell Transplant, Medanta-Medicity, Gurgaon, India

    Nitin Sood

  5. Department of Hematology and Oncology, Santa Casa Medical School, Sao Paulo, Brazil

    Carlos Chiattone

  6. Department of Haematology and Immunology, Obafemi Awolowo University and Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria

    Norah O. Akinola

  7. Haematology Research Centre, Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Robert Peter Gale

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Yang, S., Varghese, A.M., Sood, N. et al. Ethnic and geographic diversity of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Leukemia 35, 433–439 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-020-01057-5

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