Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in genes encoding for CC chemokines were not associated with the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

BACKGROUND Chemokines play a pivotal role in immune regulation and response, and previous studies suggest an association between immune deficiency and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). METHODS We evaluated the association between NHL and polymorphisms in 18 genes (CCL1, CCL2, CCL5, CCL7, CCL8, CCL11, CCL13, CCL18, CCL20, CCL24, CCL26, CCR1, CCR3, CCR4, CCR6, CCR7, CCR8, and CCR9) encoding for the CC chemokines using data from a population-based case-control study of NHL conducted in Connecticut women. RESULTS CCR8 was associated with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL; P = 0.012), and CCL13 was associated with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL; P = 0.003) at gene level. After adjustment for multiple comparisons, none of the genes or single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were associated with risk of overall NHL or NHL subtypes. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that the genes encoding for CC chemokines are not significantly associated with the risk of NHL, and further studies are needed to verify these findings. IMPACT Our data indicate that CC chemokine genes were not associated with NHL risk.