Date of Award
8-16-2024
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
First Advisor
Alyssa Clay-Gilmour
Abstract
Background. Lymphoma is a blood cancer that develops when white blood cells multiply in an abnormal way and collect in the lymph nodes. Autoimmune diseases result when the immune system is overactive, causing it to attack and damage the body’s own tissues. Limited studies have been conducted to investigate the association between autoimmune diseases and lymphoma risk.
Literature review. Based on prior research, six autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis (RA), lupus, Sjögren’s syndrome, sarcoidosis, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis (UC)) were examined to better understand their association with lymphoma risk. Prior research has concluded that certain aspects of these autoimmune diseases such as disease severity, risk factors, and/or treatment options can influence the risk of lymphoma in these patients.
Methods. The data for this study were extracted from the UK Biobank (UKBB) and consisted of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) cases diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), or multiple myeloma (MM) (identified by ICD-10 diagnoses codes) and non-cancer controls. Assessment of autoimmune diseases (RA, lupus, Sjögren’s syndrome, sarcoidosis, Crohn’s disease, and UC) was conducted at baseline. Descriptive statistics were calculated for demographics and covariates for all participants. Two types of analyses were conducted: matched and unmatched. For the matched analysis, cases, and controls (1:10) were matched on age and sex. Multivariable logistic regression, adjusted for potential confounders, was employed to examine the association by calculating odds ratios (ORs and 95% CI) between various types of autoimmune diseases and the risk of lymphoma, stratified by subtype. Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05.
Results. In this study, 324,188 participants were included in the analysis utilizing R version (4.3.2). In the unmatched analysis, cases exhibited a higher prevalence of males (57%) and specific autoimmune conditions, such as RA (3.5%), Sjögren’s syndrome (1.5%), Lupus (0.3%), UC (1.5%), and Crohn’s disease (0.8%). Unadjusted analysis demonstrated a significant positive association with autoimmune diagnosis and DLBCL, while CLL and MM showed no statistically significant association. In the age- and sex-matched analyses, a significant positive association between autoimmune disease and DLBCL was observed, with no association observed for CLL and MM.
Discussion. This study contributes value to existing research by examining the relationship between autoimmune diseases and lymphomas in a large prospective study. Future investigations are warranted to deepen our understanding of this relationship and to corroborate these findings via prospective studies.
Rights
© 2024, Hannah Grace Dice
Recommended Citation
Dice, H. G.(2024). Association Between Autoimmune Diseases and Lymphoma Risk Using the UK Biobank. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/7707