Risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma after radiotherapy for solid cancers

Ionizing radiation increases risk for acute leukemia, but less is known about radiation and risk of other hematologic malignancies such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). We compared second primary NHL incidence among patients who did and did not receive initial radiotherapy for first primary solid malignancy during 1981-2007 reported in nine Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program population-based cancer registries. We identified 5590 second NHL cases among 1 450 962 1-year cancer survivors. NHL risk was increased after initial radiotherapy for all solid cancers combined (multivariate Poisson regression relative risk [RR]: 1.13, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.06-1.20), non-small cell lung cancer (RR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.08-2.17) and prostate cancer (RR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.09-1.32). NHL risk increased with longer latency after radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (p(trend) = 0.003) but decreased for prostate cancer (p(trend) = 0.017). There was no clear NHL risk pattern by NHL subtype or age. Our study provides limited evidence that radiotherapy for solid malignancy is associated with increased risk of subsequent NHL.