ABSTRACT
A survey was carried out in 2 country areas of New South Wales with the aim of defining contacts among patients with lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma, and of determining whether these were more numerous than among matched controls from the same localities. Cases were identified from records of the N.S.W. Central Cancer Registry and of local doctors and hospitals. 184 cases were found, corresponding to the expected number, and 145 patients, as well as the same number of controls, were interviewed. Of the 290 patients and controls surveyed 111 (38.3%) had had one or more contacts with other patients or controls (37.9% of patients and 38.6% of controls). There were 24 case-case pairs involving contacts among 33 individual patients, 23 control-control pairs involving 36 individuals, and 38 case-control pairs involving 66 individuals. A statistical analysis using a weighting system showed that numbers, closeness and duration of contacts among patients and patients did not differ significantly from those expected. These results thus provide no evidence in favor of the hypothesis that the diseases were transmitted from patient to patient in the survey areas.
Subject(s)
Leukemia/transmission , Lymphoma/transmission , Multiple Myeloma/transmission , Australia , Epidemiologic Methods , Female , Hodgkin Disease/epidemiology , Hodgkin Disease/transmission , Humans , Leukemia/epidemiology , Lymphoma/epidemiology , Male , Multiple Myeloma/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Thirteen cases of leukemia, 12 of them acute, occurred in 3 generations of a family comprising 293 members. Individual cases could not be linked to the possession of any of a range of genetic markers. Cytogenetic studies showed no constitutional chromosome abnormalities. Preliminary results of virologic studies suggested the presence of oncornaviruses in at least 1 leukemic individual in this family. This aggregation of leukemia cases likely resulted from a genetic, probably polygenic, predisposition, in association with the activity of leukemogenic factors whose nature remains to be clearly defined.
Subject(s)
Leukemia/genetics , Adolescent , Aged , Blood Proteins , Child , Child, Preschool , Chromosomes , Erythrocytes/enzymology , Female , HLA Antigens , Humans , Immunity, Cellular , Leukemia/immunology , Leukemia/microbiology , Leukemia, Myeloid/genetics , Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute/genetics , Male , Middle Aged , Oncogenic Viruses/isolation & purification , PedigreeABSTRACT
A family survey was conducted among 909 patients with leukaemia of all types, with the purpose of establishing the incidence of further cases of leukaemia among relatives. Among a total of 41,807 relatives 8,349 were deceased, and the cause of death was objectively confirmed in 5,011. 72 patients had one or more relatives with leukaemia. First degree relatives with leukaemia were much more frequent in families of patients with chronic lymphocytic than in those of patients with chronic granulocytic leukaemia. The incidence of leukaemia among first degree relatives was established to be 2.8-3.0 times, among more distant relatives about 2.3 times, and overall about 2.5 times that expected. This excess is of the order of that observed in relatives of patients with certain solid tumors. Genetic factors may have accounted for much of the excess incidence in chronic lymphocytic and acute leukaemia, but there was little evidence for a genetic background in chronic granulocytic leukaemia. With the possible exception of one family with multiple cases, a simple Mendelian mechanism did not appear to be involved in the leukaemia families investigated. It appeared more likely that a polygenic mechanism led to a heightened susceptibility to the disease in these families.
