Family history of hemolymphopoietic and other cancers and risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

We investigated the risk of lymphomas, hemolymphopoietic (HLP) cancers (including lymphomas), and non-HLP cancers in first-degree relatives of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) cases in an Italian case-control study on 225 patients (median age, 59 years) with a new diagnosis of NHL and 504 hospital controls (median age, 63 years), admitted for a wide spectrum of acute, nonneoplastic, nonimmune conditions. We estimated odds ratios (OR) adjusted for sex, age, family size, and other potential confounders. We also built the cohort of all first-degree relatives and computed age and sex adjusted hazard ratios (HR) using proportional hazard models. A history of lymphoma in first-degree relatives was reported by 5 NHL cases and 3 controls [OR, 3.2; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.7-14.4] whereas 14 cases and 11 controls reported a family history of HLP cancers (OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.2-7.0). The HR of relatives of NHL cases, compared with relatives of controls, was 4.5 (95% CI, 1.1-18.8) for lymphomas, 3.5 (95% CI, 1.5-7.4) for HLP cancers, 1.6 (95% CI, 1.3-2.0) for all cancers, and 1.0 (95% CI, 0.9-1.1) for all causes of deaths. The HRs were higher for relatives of NHL cases diagnosed before the age of 50 years: 7.1 for HLP cancers, 2.0 for all cancers, and 1.6 for all deaths. A family history of cancer of the liver (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.0-4.2), breast (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.0-3.6), and kidney (OR, 4.6; 95% CI, 1.0-20.9) increased NHL risk. The OR was also elevated for all cancer sites (OR, 1.7 95% CI, 1.2-2.4) and the risk increased with the number of affected relatives also when HLP cancers were excluded.