EUROLYMPH - Collaborative European Action into Environmental, Nutritional and Genetic Factors in Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Aetiology

The incidence and mortality of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) are increasing worldwide. Previous studies have addressed the potential etiologic role of environmental factors and have generated useful hypotheses, including exposure to pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), solvents and ultraviolet (UV) radiation; but the results are not consistent. We propose to develop a network to investigate the role of environmental factors in NHL using an integrated and powerful approach, based on two large-scale NHL studies recently conducted in eight European countries that include over 2,400 cases and a comparable control group.
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Levels of immunologically active pesticides and PCB will be measured in case and control serum samples to obtain an integrated marker of exposure. DNA samples will be genotyped for polymorphisms related to metabolism of specific environmental agents including pesticides and UV radiation. The immunological effect of occupational exposures will be assessed via the application of a job-exposure matrix developed for a similar project on asthma. The work will be extended to an international collaboration of NHL studies (the InterLymph consortium), which includes additional studies from Europe, North America and Australia, for a total of more than 7,500 NHL cases and controls to investigate the role of environmental and nutritional factors, notably exposure to organochlorines and solvents, on the basis of questionnaire data.