Case-control study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

成人非霍奇金淋巴瘤？S淋巴瘤（NHL）是近年来增长最快的癌症之一。全世界所有年龄段的男性和女性都出现了这种上升。大部分上升的原因尚不清楚。最近有人提出，部分上升的原因可能是由于在同一时期，太阳照射量增加。有一些间接的证据支持这一假设。例如，NHL的发生率在澳大利亚更接近赤道的地方比在英格兰和威尔士更高，NHL在维多利亚的英国移民中的诊断率比在他们的祖国更高。通过比较1998-2001年期间被诊断患有NHL的塔斯马尼亚人和没有这种疾病的塔斯马尼亚人的阳光照射模式，将对阳光假设进行检验。塔斯马尼亚之所以被选中，是因为那里的紫外线辐射水平在夏季很低，只有夏季接近布里斯班、悉尼和墨尔本的水平。因此，塔斯马尼亚岛暴露最多和暴露最少的人之间的紫外线暴露差异较大，使其成为测试假设的理想地点。NHL和皮肤中黑色素沉着的测量之间的联系也将被研究。NHL的发病率在肤色较浅的种族群体中高于生活在同一纬度的肤色较深的人群，但尚不清楚高加索人群中的风险是否不同。霍巴特的孟席斯人口健康研究中心开发了一种新的皮肤黑色素测量方法，可以更好地研究肤色的影响。

Adult non-Hodgkin?s lymphoma (NHL) is one of the most rapidly increasing cancers of recent times. The rise has occurred worldwide in men and women of all ages. The reason for most of the rise is unknown. It has recently been proposed that part of the upsurge may be due to increases in sun exposure which have occurred during the same period. There is some indirect evidence to support this hypothesis. For example, the rate of occurrence of NHL is higher closer to the equator in Australia than it is in England and Wales, and NHL is diagnosed more frequently among British migrants to Victoria than it is in their homeland. The sunlight hypothesis will be tested by comparing the pattern of sun exposure in Tasmanians diagnosed with NHL during the years 1998-2001 and in a sample of Tasmanians without the disease. tasmania has been chosen because levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation are low there in all but the summer months, when it approaches the levels of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. There is therefore a greater difference in UV exposure between the most exposed and the least exposed in Tasmania, making it an ideal location to test the hypothesis. The link between NHL and a measure of melanin pigmentation in the skin will also be studied. The incidence of NHL is higher in lighter-skinned ethnic groups than it is in darker-skinned people living at the same latitude, but it is not known whether risk varies within Caucasian populations. A new measure of melanin in the skin, developed at the Menzies Centre for Population Health Research in Hobart, will better allow the effects of skin colour to be studied.