Genetic overlap between autoimmune diseases and non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes

Epidemiologic studies show an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in patients with autoimmune disease (AD), due to a combination of shared environmental factors and/or genetic factors, or a causative cascade: chronic inflammation/antigen-stimulation in one disease leads to another. Here we assess shared genetic risk in genome-wide-association-studies (GWAS). Secondary analysis of GWAS of NHL subtypes (chronic lymphocytic leukemia, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, and marginal zone lymphoma) and ADs (rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and multiple sclerosis). Shared genetic risk was assessed by (a) description of regional genetic of overlap, (b) polygenic risk score (PRS), (c)"diseasome", (d)meta-analysis. Descriptive analysis revealed few shared genetic factors between each AD and each NHL subtype. The PRS of ADs were not increased in NHL patients (nor vice versa). In the diseasome, NHLs shared more genetic etiology with ADs than solid cancers (p = .0041). A meta-analysis (combing AD with NHL) implicated genes of apoptosis and telomere length. This GWAS-based analysis four NHL subtypes and three ADs revealed few weakly-associated shared loci, explaining little total risk. This suggests common genetic variation, as assessed by GWAS in these sample sizes, may not be the primary explanation for the link between these ADs and NHLs

Personal sun exposure and risk of non Hodgkin lymphoma: A pooled analysis from the Interlymph Consortium

In 2004-2007 4 independent case-control studies reported evidence that sun exposure might protect against NHL; a fifth, in women only, found increased risks of NHL associated with a range of sun exposure measurements. These 5 studies are the first to examine the association between personal sun exposure and NHL. We report here on the relationship between sun exposure and NHL in a pooled analysis of 10 studies participating in the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph), including the 5 published studies. Ten case-control studies covering 8,243 cases and 9,697 controls in the USA, Europe and Australia contributed original data for participants of European origin to the pooled analysis. Four kinds of measures of self-reported personal sun exposure were assessed at interview. A two-stage estimation method was used in which study-specific odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusted for potential confounders including smoking and alcohol use, were obtained from unconditional logistic regression models and combined in random-effects models to obtain the pooled estimates. Risk of NHL fell significantly with the composite measure of increasing recreational sun exposure, pooled OR = 0.76 (95% CI 0.63-0.91) for the highest exposure category (p for trend 0.01). A downtrend in risk with increasing total sun exposure was not statistically significant. The protective effect of recreational sun exposure was statistically significant at 18-40 years of age and in the 10 years before diagnosis, and for B cell, but not T cell, lymphomas. Increased recreational sun exposure may protect against NHL

Infectious mononucleosis, immune genotypes, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) : an InterLymph Consortium study

Background: We explored the interaction between non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), infectious mononucleosis (IM) history, and immune-related genotypes in a pooled case-control analysis. Methods: 7926 NHL patients and 10 018 controls from 12 studies were included. Self-reported IM history and genotypes were provided by the InterLymph Data Coordinating Center at Mayo Clinic. Odds ratios (OR) were estimated using multivariate logistic and linear regression, and interactions with the empirical Bayes method. Bonferroni corrections and pACT were used to account for multiple comparisons. Results: There was evidence of an interaction effect between IM history and two variants on T-cell lymphoma (TCL) risk: rs1143627 in interleukin-1B (pinteraction= 0.02, ORinteraction = 0.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.01, 0.87) and rs1800797 in interleukin-6 (pinteraction = 0.02, ORinteraction=0.08, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.80). Neither interaction effect withstood adjustment for multiple comparisons. Among controls, increasing socioeconomic status (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.48, 1.93) and female sex (OR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.26, 1.87) were positively associated with IM. Large sibship size (3+) was inversely associated with IM among controls born before 1960 (OR<1960 = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.24, 0.67), but not after. Conclusions: Genetic risk variants in IL1B and IL6 may affect the association between IM and TCL. Risk factors for IM are consistent with lower Epstein-Barr virus exposure in early life; the association with female sex is unexplained. Keywords: Infectious mononucleosis, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, T-cell lymphoma, genotype, interleukin 1B, interleukin 6, siblings, family size, socioeconomic status Key Messages • A suggestion that genetic variation in interleukin-1B (IL1B) and interleukin-6 (IL6) may attenuate the association between infectious mononucleosis and T-cell lymphoma requires confirmation with larger numbers. • Increasing socioeconomic status and female sex are independently associated with self-reported infectious mononucleosis. • The number of siblings is inversely associated with self-reported infectious mononucleosis among those born before 1960 but not those born after

Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Body Mass Index, and Cytokine Polymorphisms: A Pooled Analysis from the InterLymph Consortium

BACKGROUND: Excess adiposity has been associated with lymphomagenesis, possibly mediated by increased cytokine production causing a chronic inflammatory state. The relationship between obesity, cytokine polymorphisms and selected mature B-cell neoplasms is reported. METHOD: Data on 4979 cases and 4752 controls from nine American/European studies from the InterLymph consortium (1988–2008) were pooled. For diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), follicular lymphoma (FL) and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL), joint associations of body mass index (from self-reported height and weight) and 12 polymorphisms in cytokines IL1A (rs1800587), IL1B (rs16944, rs1143627), IL1RN (rs454078), IL2 (rs2069762), IL6 (rs1800795, rs1800797), IL10 (rs1800890, rs1800896), TNF (rs1800629), LTA (rs909253), and CARD15 (rs2066847) were investigated using unconditional logistic regression. BMI-polymorphism interaction effects were estimated using the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI). RESULTS: Obesity (BMI≥30kg m(−2)) was associated with DLBCL risk (OR=1.33, 95%CI 1.02–1.73), as was TNF-308GA+AA (OR=1.24, 95%CI 1.07–1.44). Together, being obese and TNF-308GA+AA increased DLBCL risk almost two-fold relative to those of normal weight and TNF-308GG (OR=1.93 95%CI 1.27–2.94), with a RERI of 0.41 (95%CI −0.05,0.84, P(interaction)=0.13). For FL and CLL/SLL, no associations with obesity or TNF-308GA+AA, either singly or jointly, were observed. No evidence of interactions between obesity and the other polymorphisms were detected. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that cytokine polymorphisms do not generally interact with BMI to increase lymphoma risk but obesity and TNF-308GA+AA may interact to increase DLBCL risk. IMPACT: Studies using better measures of adiposity are needed to further investigate the interactions between obesity and TNF-308G>A in the pathogenesis of lymphoma

Total energy expenditure during arduous wildfire suppression

BACKGROUND: A proportion of the genetic variants involved in susceptibility to Hodgkin lymphoma differ by the tumor's Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) status, particularly within the MHC region. METHODS: We have conducted an SNP imputation study of the MHC region, considering tumor EBV status in 1,200 classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) cases and 5,726 control subjects of European origin. Notable findings were genotyped in an independent study population of 468 cHL cases and 551 controls. RESULTS: We identified and subsequently replicated a novel association between a common genetic variant rs6457715 and cHL. Although strongly associated with EBV-positive cHL [OR, 2.33; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.83-2.97; P = 7 × 10(-12)], there was little evidence for association between rs6457715 and the EBV-negative subgroup of cHL (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.92-1.21), indicating that this association was specific to the EBV-positive subgroup (Phet &lt; P = 10(-8)). Furthermore, the association was limited to EBV-positive cHL subgroups within mixed cell (MCHL) and nodular sclerosis subtypes (NSHL), suggesting that the association is independent of histologic subtype of cHL. CONCLUSIONS rs6457715, located near the HLA-DPB1 gene, is associated with EBV-positive cHL and suggests this region as a novel susceptibility locus for cHL. IMPACT This expands the number of genetic variants that are associated with cHL and provides additional evidence for a critical and specific role of EBV in the etiology of this disease

Targetable genetic alterations of TCF4 (E2-2) drive immunoglobulin expression in diffuse large B cell lymphoma

The activated B cell (ABC-like) subtype of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is characterized by chronic activation of signaling initiated by immunoglobulin m (IgM). By analyzing the DNA copy number profiles of 1000 DLBCL tumors, we identified gains of 18q21.2 as the most frequent genetic alteration in ABC-like DLBCL. Using integrative analysis of matched gene expression profiling data, we found that the TCF4 (E2-2) transcription factor gene was the target of these alterations. Overexpression of TCF4 in ABC-like DLBCL cell lines led to its occupancy on immunoglobulin (IGHM) and MYC gene enhancers and increased expression of these genes at the transcript and protein levels. Inhibition of TCF4 activity with dominant-negative constructs was synthetically lethal to ABC-like DLBCL cell lines harboring TCF4 DNA copy gains, highlighting these gains as an attractive potential therapeutic target. Furthermore, the TCF4 gene was one of the top BRD4-regulated genes in DLBCL cell lines. BET proteolysistargeting chimera (PROTAC) ARV771 extinguished TCF4, MYC, and IgM expression and killed ABC-like DLBCL cells in vitro. In DLBCL xenograft models, ARV771 treatment reduced tumor growth and prolonged survival. This work highlights a genetic mechanism for promoting immunoglobulin signaling in ABC-like DLBCL and provides a functional rationale for the use of BET inhibitors in this disease

Birth Order and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma—True Association or Bias?

There is inconsistent evidence that increasing birth order may be associated with risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The authors examined the association between birth order and related variables and NHL risk in a pooled analysis (1983–2005) of 13,535 cases and 16,427 controls from 18 case-control studies within the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph). Overall, the authors found no significant association between increasing birth order and risk of NHL (P-trend = 0.082) and significant heterogeneity. However, a significant association was present for a number of B- and T-cell NHL subtypes. There was considerable variation in the study-specific risks which was partly explained by study design and participant characteristics. In particular, a significant positive association was present in population-based studies, which had lower response rates in cases and controls, but not in hospital-based studies. A significant positive association was present in higher-socioeconomic-status (SES) participants only. Results were very similar for the related variable of sibship size. The known correlation of high birth order with low SES suggests that selection bias related to SES may be responsible for the association between birth order and NHL