Serological evidence of an association between chlamydial infections and malignant lymphomas

Abstract

Chronic infections may predispose to malignant growth. Recently, serological markers of chronic Chlamydia pneumoniae infection have been associated with lung cancer. Our aim was to study the possible association between chronic chlamydial infections and malignant lymphomas. The present case-control study involved 72 patients with lymphoma (31 females and 41 males) and matched controls. 53 patients had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and 19 had Hodgkin's disease. The sera, collected at the time of diagnosis, were tested for IgG antibodies and immune complexes to C. pneumoniae and C. trachomatis by a microimmunofluorescence method and ELISA and for IgG antibodies and immune complexes to Helicobacter pylori by ELISA. The serological markers suggesting chronic chlamydial infection were associated with malignant lymphoma. The association was most evident for the presence of C. pneumoniae-specific immune complexes in NHL (OR = 7.3, 95% CI 2.2-25) and appeared to be limited to men. No association between H. pylori antibodies or immune complexes and malignant lymphomas could be demonstrated. Our study provides seroepidemiological evidence of an association between chronic chlamydial infections and lymphomas.

Specific Infections, Infection-Related Behavior, and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in Adults

“…One study in a HIV-positive population reported no association with sexually transmitted infections (17), but others have produced conflicting results possibly due to confounding by HIV infection (18,19). Only one study tested for serologic evidence of a sexually transmitted infection (20); this small hospital-based case-control study showed a significant positive association between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Chlamydia trachomatis antibodies detected by ELISA but not when the more specific microimmunofluorescence method was used.…”

Chronic bacterial and parasitic infections and cancer: a review

“…Finally, Chlamydia have been associated with lymphoproliferative disorders in adults [31,32]; in particular, ocular lymphomas have been linked to Chlamydia psittaci [33]. On the contrary, it is believed that there is no convincing proof for association between Chlamydia and leukaemia [34].…”

Chlamydiae and Mycoplasma infections in pulmonary MALT lymphoma

“…and Mycoplasma pneumoniae can cause chronic pulmonary diseases such as chronic bronchitis and adult-onset asthma (Bjornsson et al, 1996;Daian et al, 2000), and chronic infection with C. pneumoniae or M. pneumoniae has been linked to an increased risk of lung cancer (Pehlivan et al, 2004;Littman et al, 2005). C. pneumoniae and C. trachomatis infections, particularly the former, are also associated with an increased risk of lymphoma although their specific association with pulmonary MALT lymphoma is unclear (Anttila et al, 1998). The present study was thus designed to examine the potential association of Chlamydiae and Mycoplasma infection with pulmonary MALT lymphoma.…”