CUTANEOUS MELANOMA, HODGKIN'S LYMPHOMA AND NON-HODGKIN'S LYMPHOMA: COMMON RISK FACTORS?

Aim: An epidemiological cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the association between cutaneous melanoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 40 European countries. Methods: Incidence rates were obtained from the database of the International Agency for Research of Cancer (IARC). We analyzed age-adjusted and gender-stratified incidence rates for cutaneous melanoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 40 European countries. All European countries included had registration systems that fulfilled the quality criteria of IARC. Normal distribution of the variables was examined using Kolmorov-Smirnov test before calculating their correlations using Pearson's Correlation test. Results: In males, positive correlations were found between cutaneous melanoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma (r = 0.14, p = 0.38), and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (r = 0.64, p < 0.001). In females, negative correlation was found between cutaneous melanoma and Hodgkin's lymphoma (r = 0.28, p = 0.08), however, positive correlation was found between cutaneous melanoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (r = 0.72, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our findings raise the hypothesis about common risk factors for cutaneous melanoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. New epidemiological and genetic studies are needed to identify possible common risk factors.