What are the risk factors for Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia?
A risk factor is anything that affects your chance of getting a disease su ch as cancer.
Different can cers have different risk factors. For example, unprotected exposure to strong
sunlight is a risk factor for skin cancer. Smoking is a risk factor for man y cancers.
Researchers have found a few risk factors that make a person more likely to develop
Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM). But most people with these risk f actors nev er
develop the disease. Even if a patient with WM does have one or more risk factors, it is
impossible to know for sure how much that risk factor contributed to causing the cancer.
Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance
Monoclonal gammopathy of und etermined significance (MGUS) is an abnormality of
antibody-producing cells that is related to multiple myeloma and WM. In MGUS, like
WM and multiple myeloma, abnormal cells in the bone marrow make a large amount of
one particular antibody -- this is called a monoclonal gammopathy . As long as the patient
has no problems from the abnormal cells or the antibody, it is called MGUS . Generally,
the abnormal cells in MGUS make up less than 10% of the bone marrow and the amount
of abnormal protein in the blood is not very high (<3g/dl). In most cases, MGUS causes
no health problems, but up to 25% of people with MGUS will go on to be diagnosed with
a cancer o r related seriou s health problem (like multiple myeloma, WM, another
lymphoma, or amyloidosis) over the 20 years after diagnosis.
Age
The risk of Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia goes up with age. It is rare among people younger than 50 years old.
Race
Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia is more common among whites than among African Americans. In contrast,
multiple myeloma is about twice as common among African Americans as white
Americans. The reasons for these differences are not known.
Sex
Men are more likely than women to develop this disease.
Heredity
Genetic factors may play a role. In one study, about 5% of patients with WM had a close
relative with the disease, and another 15% of WM patients had a relative with another
type of lymphoma.
Hepatitis C
A recent study has shown that people with chronic hepatitis C infection develop WM
more than twice as often as people without the virus.
