Researchers Study Risk Factors of Incurable Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

In a recent study, researchers analyzed records of more than 2,400 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma to better understand the risk factors for mantle cell lymphoma, an aggressive and incurable form of the disease.

Over several past decades, incidence of mantle cell lymphoma has steadily increased; the disease was first established as a type of lymphoma in 1992. In the recent study, researchers found that men are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma than women. Caucasians are at more risk than other ethnic groups and age is a significant risk factor; those age 70 to 79 years old are at much higher risk than other age groups.

Patients diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma usually are at advanced stages of the disease at time of diagnosis. The disease carries the poorest prognosis of all lymphomas. The complete study can be found in the July 7, 2008, online version and the August 15, 2008, print version of the journal Cancer. Its title is "Incidence trends of mantle cell lymphoma in the United States between 1992 and 2004."