A common genetic variant is associated with risk for follicular lymphoma (FL), according to a study published online in Nature Genetics.
Lymphomas are cancers that arise in immune system cells, and are classified into two different types: Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The risk of developing NHL increases with age, and about 1 out of 4 cases of NHL is follicular lymphoma. The overall survival rate of FL varies widely, but about 20% of cases die early in the course of the disease. In this study, Christine Skibola and colleagues analyzed the genomes of thousands of individuals with NHL. They report that a genetic variant on chromosome 6p21 is significantly associated with FL. Author Contact: Christine F. Skibola (University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA)
E-mail: chrisfs@berkeley.edu Abstract available online. (C) Nature Genetics press release.
Message posted by: Trevor M. D'Souza
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