Family Cancer History Boosts Risk for Hodgkin"s Lymphoma Survivors

By David Douglas

NEW YORK MAR 31, 2008 (Reuters Health) - People who survive Hodgkin"s lymphoma (HL) but have a family history of cancer are at greater risk for a second primary malignancy, according to Swedish researchers.

In the March issue of the British Journal of Cancer, Dr. Anne Andersson of Umea University Hospital and colleagues note that although there has been an increase in long-term survival after HL, life expectancy is still shorter than normal, in part due to a high risk of second malignancies.

To study the influence of a family history of cancer on survival, the researchers examined Swedish Cancer Registry data on 6946 patients treated for HL between 1965 and 1995. Altogether, 1453 HL patients (20.9%) had one or more first-degree relatives with a history of cancer.

Second malignancies developed in 696 (15%) HL patients a year or more after the original diagnosis. The risk of a second cancer increased with the number of first degree relatives with cancer.

The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for patients with no family history of cancer was 2.06. With one relative with cancer, the SIR rose to 3.01, and with two or more, it was 3.45.

Dr. Andersson told Reuters Health that the increased risk for secondary cancers among survivors of HL "may be due to gene-environment interaction."

"A family history of cancer," she added, "could be one of the factors to consider when setting up surveillance programs for this group of patients."

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