Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Lymphoid cancers are cancers of blood cells. Collectively they are the fifth most common type of cancer in Canada. There are many types of lymphoid cancers, each with a unique set of characteristics that distinguish them from one another. Multiple occurrences of lymphoid cancers within the same family suggest that there is a genetic component to the disease. Lymphoid cancers that are inherited may be related to gender, age, ethnicity, infectious agents and family relationship. A collection of 140 families with 2 or more members with lymphoid cancers were used to identify patterns of lymphoid cancer inheritance. We found that lymphoid cancer families contain an earlier age of onset than non-familial lymphoid cancer cases. We also found different patterns of lymphoid cancer co-occurrence in families than expected population patterns. Non-random patterns of co-occurrence, and earlier age of onset of familial cases, suggests there is difference between familial lymphoid cancer cases and population cases. These observations support the idea and provide evidence for inherited genetic factors that increase the risk of developing lymphoid cancers.