Genetically Determined Height and Risk of Non-hodgkin Lymphoma

Although the evidence is not consistent, epidemiologic studies have suggested that taller adult height may be associated with an increased risk of some non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) subtypes. Height is largely determined by genetic factors, but how these genetic factors may contribute to NHL risk is unknown. We investigated the relationship between genetic determinants of height and NHL risk using data from eight genome-wide association studies (GWAS) comprising 10,629 NHL cases, including 3,857 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), 2,847 follicular lymphoma (FL), 3,100 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and 825 marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) cases, and 9,505 controls of European ancestry. We evaluated genetically predicted height by constructing polygenic risk scores using 833 height-associated SNPs. We used logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for association between genetically determined height and the risk of four NHL subtypes in each GWAS and then used fixed-effect meta-analysis to combine subtype results across studies. We found suggestive evidence between taller genetically determined height and increased CLL risk (OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.00\u20131.17, p = 0.049), which was slightly stronger among women (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.01\u20131.31, p = 0.036). No significant associations were observed with DLBCL, FL, or MZL. Our findings suggest that there may be some shared genetic factors between CLL and height, but other endogenous or environmental factors may underlie reported epidemiologic height associations with other subtypes

Two high-risk susceptibility loci at 6p25.3 and 14q32.13 for Waldenström macroglobulinemia

Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM)/lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (LPL) is a rare, chronic B-cell lymphoma with high heritability. We conduct a two-stage genome-wide association study of WM/LPL in 530 unrelated cases and 4362 controls of European ancestry and identify two high-risk loci associated with WM/LPL at 6p25.3 (rs116446171, near EXOC2 and IRF4; OR = 21.14, 95% CI: 14.40–31.03, P = 1.36 × 10−54) and 14q32.13 (rs117410836, near TCL1; OR = 4.90, 95% CI: 3.45–6.96, P = 8.75 × 10−19). Both risk alleles are observed at a low frequency among controls (~2–3%) and occur in excess in affected cases within families. In silico data suggest that rs116446171 may have functional importance, and in functional studies, we demonstrate increased reporter transcription and proliferation in cells transduced with the 6p25.3 risk allele. Although further studies are needed to fully elucidate underlying biological mechanisms, together these loci explain 4% of the familial risk and provide insights into genetic susceptibility to this malignancy

Different prognostic impact of recurrent gene mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia depending on IGHV gene somatic hypermutation status: a study by ERIC in HARMONY

Recent evidence suggests that the prognostic impact of gene mutations in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) may differ depending on the immunoglobulin heavy variable (IGHV) gene somatic hypermutation (SHM) status. In this study, we assessed the impact of nine recurrently mutated genes (BIRC3, EGR2, MYD88, NFKBIE, NOTCH1, POT1, SF3B1, TP53, and XPO1) in pre-treatment samples from 4580 patients with CLL, using time-to-first-treatment (TTFT) as the primary end-point in relation to IGHV gene SHM status. Mutations were detected in 1588 (34.7%) patients at frequencies ranging from 2.3-9.8% with mutations in NOTCH1 being the most frequent. In both univariate and multivariate analyses, mutations in all genes except MYD88 were associated with a significantly shorter TTFT. In multivariate analysis of Binet stage A patients, performed separately for IGHV-mutated (M-CLL) and unmutated CLL (U-CLL), a different spectrum of gene alterations independently predicted short TTFT within the two subgroups. While SF3B1 and XPO1 mutations were independent prognostic variables in both U-CLL and M-CLL, TP53, BIRC3 and EGR2 aberrations were significant predictors only in U-CLL, and NOTCH1 and NFKBIE only in M-CLL. Our findings underscore the need for a compartmentalized approach to identify high-risk patients, particularly among M-CLL patients, with potential implications for stratified management

Distinct germline genetic susceptibility profiles identified for common non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes

Lymphoma risk is elevated for relatives with common non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) subtypes, suggesting shared genetic susceptibility across subtypes. To evaluate the extent of mutual heritability among NHL subtypes and discover novel loci shared among subtypes, we analyzed data from eight genome-wide association studies within the InterLymph Consortium, including 10,629 cases and 9505 controls. We utilized Association analysis based on SubSETs (ASSET) to discover loci for subsets of NHL subtypes and evaluated shared heritability across the genome using Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis (GCTA) and polygenic risk scores. We discovered 17 genome-wide significant loci (P < 5 × 10−8) for subsets of NHL subtypes, including a novel locus at 10q23.33 (HHEX) (P = 3.27 × 10−9). Most subset associations were driven primarily by only one subtype. Genome-wide genetic correlations between pairs of subtypes varied broadly from 0.20 to 0.86, suggesting substantial heterogeneity in the extent of shared heritability among subtypes. Polygenic risk score analyses of established loci for different lymphoid malignancies identified strong associations with some NHL subtypes (P < 5 × 10−8), but weak or null associations with others. Although our analyses suggest partially shared heritability and biological pathways, they reveal substantial heterogeneity among NHL subtypes with each having its own distinct germline genetic architecture

Maternal and birth anthropometric characteristics in relation to the risk of childhood lymphomas: A Swedish nationwide cohort study

This Swedish nationwide cohort study aims to examine the role of maternal characteristics (maternal age, education, smoking, BMI, diabetes, and preeclampsia) and multiple intrauterine growth measures on the risk of childhood lymphomas. A total of 3 444 136 singleton live births registered in the Swedish Medical Birth Register were analyzed, among whom there were 515 incident non- Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cases and 169 Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) cases aged 0-14 years at diagnosis (1973-2007) identified through linkage with the Swedish Cancer Register. Proportional hazards models were used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of NHL and HL. Male sex (HR=2.00, 95% CI: 1.66-2.41), older maternal age (HR=1.03, 95% CI: 1.00-1.06, per 1-year increase), and large for gestational age compared with appropriate for gestational age (AGA) birth weight (HR=1.83, 95% CI: 1.20-2.79) were correlated with the risk of NHL; of note, in subanalysis by sex, the latter association was confined to girls (HR=3.37, 95% CI: 1.90-5.97, Pinteraction by sex=0.008). The risk of childhood HL overall was more evident among boys (HR=2.03, 95% CI: 1.46-2.81), whereas indices of accelerated fetal growth were not convincingly associated with the risk of HL. Apart from the established association with sex, the findings point to accelerated intrauterine growth as a risk factor for childhood NHL that may differ by sex. Given the rarity of this condition at birth, however, further studies with more elaborate indices are needed to conclude on its association with rare diseases such as HL. Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc

Screening for copy-number alterations and loss of heterozygosity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia--a comparative study of four differently designed, high resolution microarray platforms

Screening for gene copy-number alterations (CNAs) has improved by applying genome-wide microarrays, where SNP arrays also allow analysis of loss of heterozygozity (LOH). We here analyzed 10 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) samples using four different high-resolution platforms: BAC arrays (32K), oligonucleotide arrays (185K, Agilent), and two SNP arrays (250K, Affymetrix and 317K, Illumina). Cross-platform comparison revealed 29 concordantly detected CNAs, including known recurrent alterations, which confirmed that all platforms are powerful tools when screening for large aberrations. However, detection of 32 additional regions present in 2-3 platforms illustrated a discrepancy in detection of small CNAs, which often involved reported copy-number variations. LOH analysis using dChip revealed concordance of mainly large regions, but showed numerous, small nonoverlapping regions and LOH escaping detection. Evaluation of baseline variation and copy-number ratio response showed the best performance for the Agilent platform and confirmed the robustness of BAC arrays. Accordingly, these platforms demonstrated a higher degree of platform-specific CNAs. The SNP arrays displayed higher technical variation, although this was compensated by high density of elements. Affymetrix detected a higher degree of CNAs compared to Illumina, while the latter showed a lower noise level and higher detection rate in the LOH analysis. Large-scale studies of genomic aberrations are now feasible, but new tools for LOH analysis are requested

Coding variants at hexa-allelic amino acid 13 of HLA-DRB1 explain independent SNP associations with follicular lymphoma risk

10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.05.020American Journal of Human Genetics931167-172AJHG