- Celiac Disease Research: Associated Diseases and Disorders
- Cancer, Lymphoma and Celiac Disease
- Celiac Disease Linked to Five Times Greater Lymphoma Risk
Celiac Disease Linked to Five Times Greater Lymphoma Risk
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Celiac.com 02/09/2009 - An extensive recent survey of the Swedish cancer registry reveals that people with celiac disease face a 5-fold increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but that the risk has decreased by more than 50% over the last 40 years.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland, and Sweden's Karolinska Institute recently undertook a review of more than 60,000 lymphoma cases diagnosed in Sweden between 1965 and 2004. They matched those cases to individual lymphoma-free controls with similar characteristics.
Dr. Ying Gao of the NCI and colleagues found 37,869 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, 8,323 cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma, 13,842 cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
The researchers also enrolled 236,408 matched controls and 613,961 first-degree relatives. The team used hospital discharge information to identify people with a history of celiac disease.
The data revealed that people with a hospital discharge diagnosis of celiac disease faced a 5.35-fold increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The data also showed that risk of Hodgkin's lymphoma was mildly elevated, and thst celiac patients showed no elevated risk of developing chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
The data showed that from 1975-1984, patients with celiac disease faced a 13.2-fold greater risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; from 1985-1994, that level fell to a 7.90-fold increased risk, and from 1995-2004 that risk fell again to 3.84-fold increased risk. Siblings of those affected with celiac disease also faced a 2.03-fold greater risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
At present, doctors do not clearly understand the causal link between the two. Earlier studies have indicated that the inflammation common to celiac disease leads drives lymphoma development.
According to the research team, the study carries two basic messages:
The first is that earlier detection of celiac disease is helping to lower the risk of developing lymphoma over time, so today, fewer people are detected in the late stages, when the risk of lymphoma is much greater.
The second message is that people with a family history of celiac disease have a greater chance of developing lymphoma. This family connection was shown to be separate from the personal celiac disease history of the individual.
Together, these revelations suggest that shared mechanisms might contribute to both celiac disease and lymphoma.
The full report appears in the medical journal Gastroenterology, January 2009.
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