Abstract
Purpose
It has been hypothesized that vitamin D mediates the inverse relationship between sun exposure and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) risk reported in several recent studies. We evaluated the association of self-reported sun exposure at ages <13, 13–21, 22–40, and 41+ years and 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 4 candidate genes relevant to vitamin D metabolism (RXR, VDR , CYP24A1, CYP27B1) with NHL risk.
Methods
This analysis included 1,009 newly diagnosed NHL cases and 1,233 frequency-matched controls from an ongoing clinic-based study. Odds ratios (OR), 95 % confidence intervals (CI), and tests for trend were estimated using unconditional logistic regression.
Results
There was a significant decrease in NHL risk with increased sun exposure at ages 13–21 years (OR≥15 vs. ≤3 h/week = 0.68; 95 % CI, 0.43–1.08; p trend = 0.0025), which attenuated for older ages at exposure. We observed significant main effect associations for 3 SNPs in VDR and 1 SNP in CYP24A1: rs886441 (ORper-allele = 0.82; 95 % CI, 0.70–0.96; p = 0.016), rs3819545 (ORper-allele = 1.24; 95 % CI, 1.10–1.40; p = 0.00043), and rs2239186 (ORper-allele = 1.22; 95 % CI, 1.05–1.41; p = 0.0095) for VDR and rs2762939 (ORper-allele = 0.85; 95 % CI, 0.75–0.98; p = 0.023) for CYP24A1. Moreover, the effect of sun exposure at age 13–21 years on overall NHL risk appears to be modified by germline variation in VDR (rs4516035; p interaction = 0.0066). Exploratory analysis indicated potential heterogeneity of these associations by NHL subtype.
Conclusion
These results suggest that germline genetic variation in VDR, and therefore the vitamin D pathway, may mediate an association between early life sun exposure and NHL risk.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Sondra Buehler for her editorial assistance. This work was supported by awards from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute [R01 CA92153; P50 CA97274]. Dr. Kelly was supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [HL007152], National Cancer Institute [P50 CA130805] and is a Lymphoma Research Foundation Fellow.
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Kelly, J.L., Drake, M.T., Fredericksen, Z.S. et al. Early life sun exposure, vitamin D-related gene variants, and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Cancer Causes Control 23, 1017–1029 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-9967-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-9967-0