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Risk Factors for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
What Are the Risk Factors for non-Hodgkin lymphoma?
Risk factors are things that can increase or decrease your likelihood of contracting a disease like cancer.
Risk factors for various cancers vary. For instance, exposure to intense sunlight without protection increases
the risk of developing skin cancer.. Risk factors, however, are not universal. Even having multiple risk factors
does not guarantee that you will develop the disease. It's also possible that many people who contract the disease
had no known risk factors.
Numerous factors that may influence a person's likelihood of developing
non-Hodgkin lymphoma
have been discovered by researchers.
Age
Getting older is a strong risk factor for this disease, with most cases occurring in people in their
60s or older.
Exposure to Certain Chemicals
Some studies have suggested that chemicals such as benzene and certain herbicides and insecticides
(weed- and insect-killing substances) may be linked with an increased risk of
non-Hodgkin lymphoma .Research to clarify these
possible links is still in progress.
Some chemotherapy drugs used to treat other cancers can increase the
risk of developing leukemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma
many years later. For instance, patients who receive kidney, heart, or liver transplants are given
medications that suppress their immune systems to stop the body from attacking the new organ. Non-Hodgkin
lymphoma is more likely to develop in these patients. But it's not totally clear if this is related to
the disease itself or if it may be an effect of the treatment.
Radiation Exposure
Studies of survivors of atomic bombs and nuclear reactor accidents have shown they have an increased
risk of developing several types of cancer, including leukemia, thyroid
cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Patients treated
with radiation therapy for some other cancers, such as Hodgkin disease,
have a slightly increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin
lymphoma later in life. This risk is greater for patients treated with both radiation therapy and
chemotherapy.
Immune System Deficiency
People with weakened immune systems are at increased risk for
non-Hodgkin lymphoma. For example, patients who receive organ transplants (
kidney, heart, liver)
are treated with drugs that suppress their immune system to prevent it from attacking
the new organ. These patients have an increased risk of developing
non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The exact risk depends on which drugs and at what doses they are used.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can also weaken the immune
system, and people infected with HIV are at increased risk of
non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Several genetic diseases can cause children to be born with a deficient immune system. Along with the risk of
getting serious infections because of reduced immune defenses, these children also have an increased risk of
developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Although these inherited
immune deficiency diseases can be passed on to children, people with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who do not have these inherited diseases do not pass an increased risk of lymphoma on
to their children.