FRIDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of ocular non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the United States has steadily increased since the mid-1970s and has shown no signs of peaking, according to a report in the July 5 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Roxana Moslehi, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues sought to explore any relation between Chlamydia psittaci and the cancer, after a recent report indicated patients had a high infection rate. They compared the incidence of the disease with the rate of other nodal non-Hodgkin lymphomas by reviewing the NCI epidemiological database between 1975 and 2001. Rates were computed by sex, race, ethnicity, age group and geographic area.
The researchers found that the incidence of eye and adnexa non-Hodgkin lymphomas increased annually by 6.2 percent among white men and 6.5 percent among white women. There was no evidence these rates had peaked. Between 1992 and 2001, rates were highest among Asians and Pacific Islanders, followed by whites, while blacks had the lowest rates. By contrast, other non-Hodgkin lymphomas showed evidence of peaking in recent years.
"It is difficult to determine whether the upward trend in ocular non-Hodgkin lymphoma is real or results, as suggested by others, from diagnostic improvements or changes in classification schemes, particularly because many adnexal non-Hodgkin lymphoma were previously classified as benign lesions such as reactive hyperplasia or pseudolymphoma," the authors conclude.
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
