Familial Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: different patterns in first-degree relatives

In order to evaluate the importance of genetic susceptibility in Hodgkin's disease (HD) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) we retrospectively analysed 31 families with lymphoma in first-degree relatives containing a total of 65 affected persons. We observed 20 HD/HD, 8 NHL/HD and 8 NHL/NHL pairs with median ages of diagnosis of 27, 36 and 48 years, respectively (p < 0.001). In HD/HD sib pairs were predominant in contrast to parent/child pairs in NHL/NHL (p = 0.04). There was a higher frequency of diseases with impaired immune function in NHL/NHL than in other pairs (p = 0.01). Comparison of ages and times of incidence of the pairs as well as sex-concordance rates are consistent with an age-specific genetic susceptibility to HD, but suggest a time-specific exposure in some NHL-prone families with or without compromised immune function.