An Update on the InterLymph Consortium

The InterLymph Seventh Annual Meeting and a preceding one-day symposium, titled “New Insights into the Causes of Lymphoma,” were held July 28 to 31 in Sydney, Australia. The symposium included sessions with talks sponsored by the six InterLymph Working Groups. Presentations were given by four DCEG investigators, Ola Landgren, M.D., Ph.D., Genetic Epidemiology Branch, Mark Purdue, Ph.D., Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB), Nathaniel Rothman, M.D., M.P.H., M.H.S. (OEEB), and Sophia S. Wang, Ph.D., Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch, on the role of lifestyle, environmental, and occupational risk factors and candidate genetic loci in relation to risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The InterLymph Coordinating Committee, including Martha S. Linet, M.D., M.P.H., Chief of the Radiation Epidemiology Branch, organized the symposium, which was attended by researchers from 11 countries as well as local hematologists, oncologists, and pathologists.

The collaborations by InterLymph members have to date resulted in 12 pooled analyses of lifestyle, environmental, familial, and genetic factors and risk of NHL. The annual meeting included sessions for working groups to plan and develop future research efforts. New proposals were presented to assess the modifying role of specific gene variants on the risks associated with hair dye use, smoking, ultraviolet radiation, obesity, hepatitis C, autoimmune disorders, and other factors. A second area of emphasis will be comprehensive assessment of risk factors for rare NHL subtypes, including mantle cell, peripheral T-cell, and t(14;18). Other NHL subtypes of interest include marginal zone group (MALT); splenic, nodal, and cutaneous lymphomas; acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma; and Burkitt lymphoma/leukemia. A third initiative will focus on improving the types of information about lymphomas that are collected by population-based cancer registries.

Two major efforts will be launched during the coming year to facilitate InterLymph initiatives. A survey will be administered to identify the numbers of cases within the consortium with specific histopathological subtypes, the genotyping efforts and specific pathways that have been examined in individual studies, and the specific variables evaluated in each study. In addition, a data coordination center will be established to provide centralized, well-documented approaches for combining datasets; create a comprehensive data dictionary; develop core variables; and provide assistance and guidance on the more complex statistical analyses to be undertaken.

The meeting was held at the historic and architecturally unique Royal Australasian College of Physicians, adjacent to the Sydney Botanic Gardens. The superb organization by hosts Dr. Andrew Grulich and Dr. Claire Vajdic from the University of New South Wales resulted in an exciting and highly productive experience for all participants. The next InterLymph meeting, to be held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, will be hosted by Dr. John Spinelli and Dr. Angela Brooks-Wilson from the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre.

—Annelie M. Landgren, M.P.H.

InterLymph meeting participants