Israeli-born citizens more likely to develop Hodgkin's lymphoma
A new study shows that people born in Israel have a 60% higher chance of becoming ill with Hodgkin's lymphoma—a type of cancer—than those who had immigrated to Israel; it is estimated that environmental causes such as pollution and mental stressors are responsible for the high HL rates.
Israeli-born people have been developing much higher rates of Hodgkin's lymphoma, to the point where a group of Israeli researchers decided to try and find the cause. Their research showed that possible environmental factors are what may be causing so many Israelis to develop the cancerous illness.
The research project came out Friday in the medical journal Leukemia and Lymphoma. The project included 2.3 million Israeli 17-year-olds who were tested prior to the enlisting the IDF, between the years 1967 – 2011. They were divided by country of origin and their data were cross-referenced with existing data on Israeli cancer rates until the year 2012.
2,093 cases of Hodgkin’s lymphoma were found among the participants. After controlling for such possible confounds as sex, year of birth, socioeconomic status and body mass, the results showed that the Israeli-born participants were 60% more likely to develop Hodgkin’s lymphoma than those born overseas.
According to the research, the participants’ country of origin was less relevant, so long as it was a country other than Israel: specifically, participants from Europe, Asia and North Africa all held a lesser risk of HL compared to those born in Israel.
Another factor that came to light was that the risk of developing Hodgkin’s lymphoma among Israeli-born participants rose with time, so that during the ‘90s and ‘00s it stood at 70%. Other factors that raised the chance of HL were found to be being female, having greater body mass and being relatively tall.
“The rate of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Israel is among the highest in the world,” said Dr. Hagai Levine, one of the research heads and from the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine at Hebrew University.
The research project was also conducted by Prof. Jeremy Kark of the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine at Hebrew University and Dr. Merav Leibe of Sheba Medical Center, with the help of Ms. Estella Simhoni and Dr. Adi Leibe from the IDF Medical Corps, Prof. Lital Keinan-Boker from the Ministry of Health and Dr. Yael Bar-Ze’ev from Tel Aviv University.
Based on the current data, the research team hypothesized that environmental factors such as stress and pollution are what caused the high level of illness.
“It is possible that environmental pollutants such as pesticides are what are behind the rise in this cancer, as Israel is a leader in the use of such products,” said Dr. Levine. “Being exposed to certain materials during pregnancy or childhood could raise the risk of various illnesses, and among them cancer.”
“Another possibility is stress,” added Levine. We know this is a conflict-riddled area and that more and more research has shown that exposing the mother to stress during pregnancy can raise the risk of illnesses such as cancer.”
The new data, coupled with the high rate of HL illness in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, all point to the effect that the environment has on the likelihood of developing Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
