Scientists Find Non-viral Pathway of Blood Cancer Development

31 October 2010 - An international team of scientists, led by the ICR, has found three new regions of DNA linked to the development of Hodgkin lymphoma, one of the most common cancers in young adults.

One quarter to half of all cases of Hodgkin lymphoma are thought to be triggered by infection with Epstein-Barr virus, however the disease can also develop in patients who have never been exposed to the virus. Scientists suspected inherited genes were involved in these cases, as having a family history of disease increases risk, but until now they have not been able to identify any specific genetic risk factors.

Professor Richard Houlston and colleagues conducted a genome wide association study, comparing the genes of 589 Hodgkin lymphoma patients and 5,199 healthy controls. They found genetic variants on chromosome 2, 8 and 10 were significantly more common among Hodgkin lymphoma sufferers than others, and then confirmed the results in a further 2,057 cases and 3,416 controls.

They also found the MHC region on chromosome 6 – which contains a family of genes involved in the immune system – is linked to a higher risk of disease, which has previously been suspected but not confirmed until now.
The other genetic variants identified are also located in or near genes thought to play an important role in the immune system: REL on chromosome 2, GATA3 on chromosome 10 and PVT1 on chromosome 8.

Importantly, the changes to the DNA regions on chromosomes 2, 6, and 8 were significantly more common in patients who had not been exposed to Epstein-Barr virus, implying that genes in these regions are involved in another way of triggering disease independently of the virus.