A genome screen of families at high risk for Hodgkin lymphoma: evidence for a susceptibility gene on chromosome 4

Hodgkin's disease was recently designated Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in the World Health Organization Classification. 1 The National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) population based registries estimate that 7900 new cases are diagnosed annually in the USA. 2 Clues to its aetiology have been suggested by the bimodal age distribution; higher risks in males, in people with higher socioeconomic status, and in smaller families; and occurrence of Epstein-Barr virus in HL tumour cells. 3 The importance of genetic factors is indicated by reports of multiply affected families from case series, 4- 6 a twin study, 7 a case-control study, 8 and population registry studies carried out in Utah, 9 Denmark, 10 Israel, 11 and Sweden. 12- 14 We recently analysed data from registries in Sweden and Denmark and found significant familial aggregation of HL and other lymphoproliferative tumours. 15 The relative risk for HL among first degree relatives of cases compared with controls was 3.1. In terms of histological subtype, we also find mixed cellularity cases in the same families with NS subtype. [...]it is not possible for us to analyse linkage to subgroups based on age at onset or histological characteristics of the tumour.