Background: The etiologic role of medical history, lifestyle, family history, and occupational risk factors in sporadic Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is unknown, but epidemiologic and clinical evidence suggests that risk factors may vary by age.
Methods: We investigated risk factors for sporadic BL in 295 cases compared with 21818 controls in a pooled analysis of 18 case-control studies in the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph). Cases were defined to include typical BL or Burkitt-like lymphoma. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations were calculated separately for younger (<50 years) and older (≥ 50 years) BL using multivariate logistic regression.
Results: Cases included 133 younger BL and 159 older BL (age was missing for three cases) and they were evenly split between typical BL (n = 147) and Burkitt-like lymphoma (n = 148). BL in younger participants was inversely associated with a history of allergy (OR = 0.58; 95% CI = 0.32 to 1.05), and positively associated with a history of eczema among individuals without other atopic conditions (OR = 2.54; 95% CI = 1.20 to 5.40), taller height (OR = 2.17; 95% CI = 1.08 to 4.36), and employment as a cleaner (OR = 3.49; 95% CI = 1.13 to 10.7). BL in older participants was associated with a history of hepatitis C virus seropositivity (OR = 4.19; 95% CI = 1.05 to 16.6) based on three exposed cases. Regardless of age, BL was inversely associated with alcohol consumption and positively associated with height.
Conclusions: Our data suggest that BL in younger and older adults may be etiologically distinct.
Published by Oxford University Press 2014.