(ChemotherapyAdvisor) – Hormonal contraception is associated with an increased risk of follicular lymphoma but not of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or non-Hodgkin lymphoma overall, a pooled analysis that explored the relationship between menstrual and reproductive histories and these cancers reported in Annals of Oncology online July 10.
Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma occurs more frequently in men and follicular lymphoma, more frequently in women, noted Dr. Eleanor V. Kane, of the University of York, York, UK, for the InterLymph Consortium. They pooled 18 case-control studies from 1983 to 2005 from North America, Europe, and Japan that included self-reported reproductive histories from 4,263 women with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 5,971 without.
Risk of follicular lymphoma was found to decrease with increasing number of pregnancies (pooled ORtrend = 0.88, 95% CI 0.81–0.96) and was associated with use of hormonal contraception (pooled OR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.04–1.63). “Risks were increased when use started after the age of 21, was used for <5 years or stopped for >20 years before diagnosis,” the authors wrote. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was not associated with hormonal contraception (pooled OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.65–1.16).
Continue Reading
