Lymphomas linked to digestive disorder

An enormous study carried out jointly by US and Swedish researchers has found a propensity for people suffering from a certain autoimmune digestive disorder to develop lymphomas.



The medical journal Gastroenterology published the research in January, which looked at 60,000 lymphoma patients and found that people with celiac disease were five times more likely to develop a lymphoma than those without celiac disease, and further, that family members of those with celiac disease were two times more likely to develop a lymphoma.



So, what is celiac disease (CD)? According to the Celiac Disease Foundation it is a “lifelong, digestive disorder affecting children and adults. When people with CD eat foods that contain gluten, it creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed.”



So, what links the two diseases? Researchers couldn’t say with certainty.



But they did stress two points. One, that the risk of developing lymphoma goes down with early detection of celiac disease, and further, that a family history of celiac disease raises the risk of lymphomas.