BMJ 1995;311:749 (16 September)

Letters

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and skin cancer

Ultraviolet light is unlikely explanation for association

EDITOR,--Johanna Adami and colleagues provide data showing a greatly increased risk of melanoma and squamous cell skin cancer after non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.1 They also show a smaller but significantly increased risk for the reverse (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia after skin cancer). They conclude that "this supports the hypothesis of a role for ultraviolet light in the increasing incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma." We believe that this inference lacks justification, particularly since the relative risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia associated with ultraviolet light would have to be of similar magnitude to that of melanoma to explain the substantial increase in the incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (even after correction for changes in diagnosis).2

Geographical correlations of rates of melanoma (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code 172) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Evidence of an association between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and skin cancer
Johanna Adami, Morten Frisch, Jonathan Yuen, Bengt Glimelius, and Mads Melbye
BMJ 1995 310: 1491-1495. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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