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Mantle Cell Lymphoma and Lyme disease

Date: April 25, 2024

The distinction between CLL and its much more dangerous look-alike mantle cell lymphoma is not always an easy one to make. Most local oncologists do not do the necessary testing for cyclin D1 or specific chromosomal translocations that are the tell-tale markers of MCL. The result is sub-optimal therapy choices that the patient pays for in terms of poorer response, shorter life. You may wish to read our article

MCL - A Wolf In CLL Clothing to get some pointers.

If you have had history of tick bites (generally carried by deer or other animals) or if you have had full blown Lyme disease, it may be worth knowing that there seems to be a link between Borrelia infection caused by deer tick bites and mantle cell lymphoma - see latest abstract from “Blood” below. Write to me if you want our help in getting hold of the full length article.  Also below is a link to the CDC website on the subject of Borrelia infection.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/index.htm

Moral of the story, if you have had Lyme disease in the past please bring this fact to the attention of your oncologist. Then hope he has read this latest article in Blood.

Be well,

Chaya

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Blood. 2024 Apr 18 [Epub ahead of print]

Borrelia infection and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Schollkopf C, Melbye M, Munksgaard L, Smedby KE, Rostgaard K, Glimelius B, Chang ET, Roos G, Hansen M, Adami HO, Hjalgrim H.

Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Reports of the presence of Borrelia (B.) burgdorferi DNA in malignant lymphomas have raised the hypothesis that infection with B. burgdorferi may be causally related to non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) development. We conducted a Danish-Swedish case-control study including 3,055 NHL patients and 3,187 population controls. History of tick bite or Borrelia infection was ascertained through structured telephone interviews and through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay serum analyses for antibodies against B. burgdorferi in a subset of 1579 patients and 1354 controls. Statistical associations with risk of NHL, including histological subtypes, were assessed by lo-gistic regression. Overall risk of NHL was not associated with self-reported history of tick bite (odds ratio (OR) =1.0; 95% confidence interval 0.9-1.1), Bor-relia infection (OR=1.3 (0.96-1.8)) or the presence of anti-Borrelia antibodies (OR=1.3 (0.9-2.0)). However, in analyses of NHL subtypes, self-reported history of B. burgdorferi infection (OR=2.5 (1.2-5.1)) and seropositivity for anti-Borrelia antibodies (OR=3.6 (1.8-7.4)) were both associated with risk of mantle cell lymphoma. Convincingly, this specific association was also observed in persons who did not recall Borrelia infection yet tested positive for anti-Borrelia antibodies (OR=4.2 (2.0-8.9)). Our observations suggest a previously unreported association between B. burgdorferi infection and risk of mantle cell lymphoma.

PMID: 18424667 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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