Do childhood diseases affect NHL and HL risk? A case-control study from northern and southern Italy.
To investigate the association between non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), and exposure to childhood diseases, we analyzed an Italian case-control study that included 225 histologically-confirmed incident cases of NHL, 62 HL cases, and 504 controls. After adjusting for confounding factors, all examined childhood diseases were negatively associated with HL. Measles was negatively associated with NHL, particularly follicular B-cell NHL. Our findings provide additional support to the hypothesis that infections by most common childhood pathogens may protect against HL or, at least, be correlated with some other early exposure, which may lower the risk of HL in adulthood. In addition, our study shows that measles may provide a protective effect against NHL.
Montella
Maurizio
M
Servizio di Epidemiologia, Istituto Nazionale Tumori Fondazione G. Pascale, Naples, Italy. epidemiologia.int@tin.it
Maso
Luigino Dal
LD
Crispo
Anna
A
Talamini
Renato
R
Bidoli
Ettore
E
Grimaldi
Maria
M
Giudice
Aldo
A
Pinto
Antonio
A
Franceschi
Silvia
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015984:Causality; D002644:Chickenpox / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018184:Paramyxoviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors