Infectious mononucleosis, immune genotypes, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) : an InterLymph Consortium study

Background: We explored the interaction between non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), infectious mononucleosis (IM) history, and immune-related genotypes in a pooled case-control analysis. Methods: 7926 NHL patients and 10 018 controls from 12 studies were included. Self-reported IM history and genotypes were provided by the InterLymph Data Coordinating Center at Mayo Clinic. Odds ratios (OR) were estimated using multivariate logistic and linear regression, and interactions with the empirical Bayes method. Bonferroni corrections and pACT were used to account for multiple comparisons. Results: There was evidence of an interaction effect between IM history and two variants on T-cell lymphoma (TCL) risk: rs1143627 in interleukin-1B (pinteraction= 0.02, ORinteraction = 0.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.01, 0.87) and rs1800797 in interleukin-6 (pinteraction = 0.02, ORinteraction=0.08, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.80). Neither interaction effect withstood adjustment for multiple comparisons. Among controls, increasing socioeconomic status (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 1.48, 1.93) and female sex (OR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.26, 1.87) were positively associated with IM. Large sibship size (3+) was inversely associated with IM among controls born before 1960 (OR