Study of Lymphoma in Asia

The contribution of environmental, occupational and genetic factors to lymphoma has generated a series of novel findings in studies of Caucasians. However, none of the chemical associations have been conclusively established and the identification of the key, functional alleles in gene regions associated with risk of NHL requires further elucidation. Further, the ability to follow-up, confirm, and extend these observations is limited by the low prevalence and limited range of several important chemical exposures and the high to complete linkage disequilibrium among key candidate genetic loci in Western populations. To optimize the ability to build on and clarify these findings, it is necessary to investigate populations that differ from Caucasians in both exposure patterns and underlying genetic structure. A multidisciplinary case-control study of lymphoma in Asia provides an opportunity to replicate and extend recent and novel observations made in studies among Caucasians in a population that is distinctly different with regard to patterns of key risk factors, including range of exposures, prevalence of exposures, correlations between exposures, and variation in gene regions of particular interest. Thus, a hospital-based case-control study of lymphoma in Eastern Asia (i.e., AsiaLymph) of 4,200 cases and 4,200 controls to be enrolled over a three-year period will be conducted. In addition, 2,000 cases of myeloid leukemias and an additional 2,400 cases with less common lymphoma subtypes will be enrolled as well. The major postulated risk factors for evaluation in this study are chemical exposures (i.e., organochlorines, trichloroethylene, and benzene) and genetic susceptibility. Other factors potentially related to NHL, such as viral infections, UV exposure, medical conditions, and other lifestyle factors will also be explored. A particularly noteworthy aspect of AsiaLymph is central pathology review with immunophenotyping by two of the world s leading lymphoma pathologists, which will enable accurate analysis of findings by molecular and histologic subtypes. AsiaLymph represents the optimal next step in the DCEG lymphoma portfolio. AsiaLymph should confirm and extend previous findings, and yield novel insights into the causes of lymphoma and leukemia in both Asia and the West.