Background: Various occupations have been associated with an elevated risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), but results have been inconsistent across studies.
Objectives: We investigated occupational risk of NHL and of four common NHL subtypes with particular focus on occupations of a priori interest.
Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of 10,046 cases and 12,025 controls from 10 NHL studies participating in the InterLymph Consortium. We harmonized the occupational coding using the 1968 International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-1968) and grouped occupations previously associated with NHL into 25 a priori groups. Odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for center, age, and sex were determined for NHL overall and for the following four subtypes: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), follicular lymphoma (FL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL), and peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL).
Results: We confirmed previously reported positive associations between NHL and farming occupations [field crop/vegetable farm workers OR = 1.26; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.05, 1.51; general farm workers OR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.37]; we also confirmed associations of NHL with specific occupations such as women’s hairdressers (OR = 1.34; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.74), charworkers/cleaners (OR = 1.17; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.36), spray-painters (OR = 2.07; 95% CI: 1.30, 3.29), electrical wiremen (OR = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.54), and carpenters (OR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.93). We observed subtype-specific associations for DLBCL and CLL/SLL in women’s hairdressers and for DLBCL and PTCL in textile workers.
Conclusions: Our pooled analysis of 10 international studies adds to evidence suggesting that farming, hairdressing, and textile industry–related exposures may contribute to NHL risk. Associations with women’s hairdresser and textile occupations may be specific for certain NHL subtypes.
1Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington Campus, Wellington, New Zealand; 2Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; 3Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA; 4Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; 5Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; 6School of Public Health, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia, Australia; 7International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; 8Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, Brno, Czech Republic; 9Biological Hematology Unit, University of Burgundy, Dijon, France; 10Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; 11Center for Chronic Immunodeficiency, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; 12School of Nursing and Human Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland; 13Department of Public Health, Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy; 14Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA; 15Epidemiology and Biostatistics Sorbonne Paris Cité Center (CRESS), Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM), Villejuif, France; 16French National Registry of Childhood Hematological Malignancies (NRCH), Villejuif, France; 17Cancer Epidemiology Research Programme, Catalan Institute of Oncology–Spain Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain; 18CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain; 19Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 20Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA; 21Radiation Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 22Centre d’investigation clinique (CIC), INSERM, Bordeaux, France; 23Registre des Hémopathies Malignes de la Gironde, Institut Bergonié, Bordeaux, France; 24Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 25Epidemiology and Cancer Statistics Group, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdon; 26Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Unit, ISPO Cancer Research and Prevention Institute, Florence, Italy; 27Cancer Control Research, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; 28Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; 29Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Recommended Citation:
rea ‘t Mannetje,1* Anneclaire J. De Roos,2* Paolo Boffetta,et al. Occupation and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Its Subtypes: A Pooled Analysis from the InterLymph Consortium[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2016-01-01,Volume 124(Issue 4):396