Let's Talk About the Causes of Lymphoma

没有什么快乐的about cancer, and when it comes to the blood and lymph cancer known as lymphoma, there’s nothing easy about figuring out who will get it, either. Sure, scientists can point to a few risk factors, but most people who develop the disease don’t even have a family history. That said, there are certain things that boost your chances of developing lymphoma—and understanding what they are can help you take action if you ever notice symptoms.

淋巴瘤Causes

我们的专业面板

We went to some of the nation’s top experts in lymphoma to bring you the most up-to-date information possible.

Faisal Saghir，M.D.

Hematologist and Medical Oncologist

西北医学Kishwaukee医院

Dekalb，IL.

Dhimant Patel, M.D.

Hematologist and Oncologist

Aurora BayCare Medical Center

绿湾，WI

Myo Htut，M.D.

Associate Clinical Professor of Hematology

City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center

杜阿特，加利福尼亚州

什么是淋巴瘤，再次？

淋巴瘤is a cancer of the blood and the lymphatic system—part of your body’s germ-fighting setup that includes lymph nodes (like the ones in your neck that get swollen when you have a bad cold), the spleen, bone marrow, and an immune gland in the chest called the thymus. Lymphoma starts when infection-fighting white blood cells called lymphocytes mutate and start to grow out of control.

There are two main categories of the disease. The first is known as Hodgkin’s lymphoma—also sometimes called “Hodgkin’s disease” and named after Thomas Hodgkin, the doctor who first described it in 1832. An estimated 8,000 Americans are diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma each year. The second type is called non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It is significantly more common than Hodgkin’s, and affects about 74,000 people each year.

Under those two umbrellas, there are more than 90 different subtypes of lymphoma, according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.

像任何癌症一样，淋巴瘤是一个严重的条件，如果你有它，那么你觉得担心是可以理解的。这是您需要知道的：击败这种疾病的几率高于众多其他形式的癌症。对于霍奇金淋巴瘤的人们的人们平均为期五年生存率（定义为诊断至少五年的人数）是87％。非霍奇金淋巴瘤人的平均五年生存率为71％。

如果您在最早的阶段被诊断出来，您将有更好的前景 - 霍奇金淋巴瘤的92％的人和NHL的82％患者在诊断后永久性生活。

那么，什么导致淋巴瘤？

Allcancers开始以同样的方式：你身体中的流氓细胞开始变形并以它不应该的方式乘以。在淋巴瘤中，它发生在被称为淋巴细胞的白细胞发生，其延伸失控。

究竟是什么触发这些细胞转化癌症的癌症并不顺利地理解，但医生已经精确定位有趣的可能遗传原因 - 加上一些略微增加风险的其他因素。

淋巴瘤遗传？

In some types of cancer, the genetic component is clear: In breast cancer, for example, we know that a parent can pass down several different gene mutations—like the BRCA1 and BRCA 2 mutations you may have heard of—that greatly increase a child’s chances of getting the disease. With lymphoma, researchers are still trying to get a clear picture of whether or not your parents could play a role.

到目前为止，科学家们没有发现任何明显的可遗传性基因突变直接与淋巴瘤相关联。也就是说，2017年欧洲癌症专家联盟进行了一项大型研究，围绕着六种单独的突变（关于与免疫系统相关的基因和自身免疫疾病），似乎与霍奇金淋巴瘤有关。

There is another way that lymphoma is genetic though—it can cause changes in your DNA’s existing genes that raise your cancer risk. Here’s the deal:

• DNA中包含的基因告诉您身体中的所有细胞如何表现。

• Genes called “oncogenes” trigger cell growth, while “tumor suppressor genes” slow it down or make cells die off when they are old or damaged.

• 如果人的DNA中存在错误和突变，它可以打开或关闭这些基因。

• In turn, this can trigger the process of copying damaged cells, increasing the odds of cancer.

家庭历史是否存在危险因素？

Family history may be a factor for some people. Even though we don’t know of a specific “lymphoma gene” or mutation that you can inherit from your parents, it does seem to run in some families.

So if you have a parent, sibling, or child with lymphoma, you are at a slightly higher risk for it than someone without close relatives with the disease.

Is Lymphoma Caused by a Virus?

It’s possible, yes. Just like some types of the sexually transmitted humapapillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervical, anal, and throat cancer, the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) can cause lymphoma in some people.

Epstein-Barr是导致单核细胞增多症的病毒（也称为“单声道”）。几乎所有人都在青少年下面暴露于它，但不是每个人都会得到症状。对于非常少数人，EBV将继续引起淋巴瘤。大多数与EBV相关的癌症发生在东南亚和非洲，原因不明确。

Beyond EBV, the hepatitis C virus and HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) are known to increase a person’s risk of getting certain types of the blood cancer, although neither one directly causes lymphoma.

Bacteria and Lymphoma Risk

幽门螺杆菌, the same bacteria that causes stomach ulcers, is linked to a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma known as gastric MALT lymphoma. (MALT stands for mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue). The lining of the stomach usually doesn’t contain any lymphoid tissues, but if someone gets anH. Pylori.infection, it can grown there as part of the body’s immune system response.

自身免疫障碍是否提高风险？

Autoimmune conditions are disorders of the immune system in which a person’s body attacks its own tissues the way it would an invading virus or bacteria, causing widespread inflammation and other symptoms.

People with severe cases of certain autoimmune disorders also have a higher risk of lymphoma, including:

• 类风湿关节炎

• 红斑狼疮

• 腹菌病

• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

• Sjögren’s syndrome

淋巴瘤and Breast Implants

Textured (or “rough”) breast implant, as opposed to the kind with smooth outer shells, are linked to a very rare type of lymphoma called breast-implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL).

This type of lymphoma grows in the scar tissue around the implant and may spread to nearby lymph nodes. In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration asked a major manufacturer of textured implants to take them off the market. Although the FDA didn’t recommend that women who already have the implants get them removed, it is smart tokeep an eye out for symptoms。

Bia-Alcl的主要迹象是乳房肿胀，不会消失，植入物和周围的疼痛，和/或植入附近的肿块。

Do Age and Gender Play a Role?

在一些癌症 - 结肠和乳腺癌, for example—age matters a lot: Both cancers are extremely rare in children and become much more common after age 50. Lymphoma doesn’t work like that.

The odds of getting lymphoma seem to rise at multiple times through a person’s life. Risks for Hodgkin’s lymphoma appear to be highest when you’re in your 20s and then rise again after the age of 55. More than half of people with non-Hodgkin lymphoma are over the age of 65.

Men are slightly more likely to get both Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin lymphoma than women. (Doctors aren’t sure why.) On the other hand, not all women experience lymphoma in the same way as men. A study inGynecologic Oncology Reports发现淋巴瘤的女性可能缺乏这种经典的症状，因为发烧和夜间汗水。相反，它们更有可能体验盆腔压力或疼痛，异常的子宫出血和性行为疼痛。

Meanwhile, athough lymphoma is more common in adults than in children, hundreds of kids do develop the disease each year. In fact, non-Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the most common cancers in kids, with about 500 cases diagnosed in children under age 15 annually.

同时,何杰金氏淋巴瘤罕见的梦想g children, but it’s the most common cancer in teens. Researchers are still exploring the reasons that these two different types of lymphoma affect kids at different ages, but the important thing to know is that the outlook for kids who get lymphoma is good. The percentage of children who are alive five years after diagnosis is 98% for Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 91% for NHL.

Does Smoking Cause Lymphoma?

众所周知，吸烟会引起13种不同类型的癌症，包括称为急性髓鞘白血病的血液和骨髓癌。研究不证明香烟烟雾会导致淋巴瘤，但结果表明，吸烟者的风险略高于某些类型的淋巴瘤的风险。

杀虫剂可能会导致淋巴瘤吗？

Although evidence is still pretty limited, some research suggests that certain pesticides and old-fashioned hair dyes (from the 1970s and earlier) may slightly increase a person’s risk of developing lymphoma.

When you’re diagnosed with something as serious as lymphoma, it’s logical that your first question is, why me? So it’s frustrating to realize how little experts still know about the causes of the disease. And of what we do know, a lot of things like family history or if you have an autoimmune condition are totally out of your control. Deep breath. Through all of the fear and uncertainty, keep your eye on this ball:淋巴瘤is a highly treatable (occasionally curable) disease。现在是时候保持冷静，让你的待遇。

Meet Our Writer

Sunny Sea Gold

Sunny is a health journalist with deep expertise in women's and children’s health who has written for some of the largest and most well-known print and digital publications in the United States. She’s also the author of the bookFood: The Good Girl’s Drug, and writes essays and reported pieces on body image, eating disorders, parenthood, and mental health. She lives in Portland, OR, with her husband and two daughters.

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