Autoimmunity and lymphomagenesis

For more than 50 years, links between autoimmunity and lymphomas have been described based on human and animal studies. Over the last 3 decades, many studies have addressed specific hypotheses about these associations using population level data. This has been accomplished by assessing previous autoimmune history in case-control studies of patients with lymphoma (mainly non-Hodgkin lymphoma) and myeloma, and by following cohorts of patients with various autoimmune diseases for subsequent development of lymphoma and multiple myeloma. In this article, we review our recently published series of association studies based on data from Scandinavia and from US Veterans and other relevant findings. We also discuss what these associations have revealed about the mechanisms and pathways underlying both autoimmunity and lymphoma. Finally, we discuss the future directions involving a combination of population and molecular studies that are needed to better define underlying biological mechanisms.