BMJ 1995;311:750 (16 September)

Letters

American data refute ultraviolet hypothesis

EDITOR,--Johanna Adami and colleagues suggest that an association between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and skin cancer supports the hypothesis that exposure to ultraviolet light may be causally related to the development of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.1 Such an association would, however, be expected in a cohort of survivors of immunosuppressive treatment for cancer since it is well known that immunosuppression increases the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, and malignant melanoma.2 3 In the absence of information on exposure the relation cannot, therefore, be attributed to ultraviolet light.

Furthermore, there is no strong evidence that the incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is increased in people living in places where exposure to solar ultraviolet light is likely to be high. Published data on the incidence of cancer4 and measures of exposure to solar ultraviolet light at six locations in the United States (Seattle, Detroit, Iowa, Utah, Atlanta, and New Mexico)5 suggest that the . . . [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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