A Link between Lymphoma and Celiac Disease?

An extensive recent survey of the Swedish cancer registry reveals that people with celiac disease face a 5-fold increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but that the risk has decreased by more than 50% over the last 40 years.

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland, and Sweden's Karolinska Institute recently undertook a review of more than 60,000 lymphoma cases diagnosed in Sweden between 1965 and 2004. They matched those cases to individual lymphoma-free controls with similar characteristics.

According to the research team, the study carries two basic messages:

The first is that earlier detection of celiac disease is helping to lower the risk of developing lymphoma over time, so today, fewer people are detected in the late stages, when the risk of lymphoma is much greater.

The second message is that people with a family history of celiac disease have a greater chance of developing lymphoma. This family connection was shown to be separate from the personal celiac disease history of the individual.