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Kenneth P. Cantor,¹ Paul T. Strickland,² John W. Brock,³ David Bush,⁴ Kathy Helzlsouer,⁴ Larry L. Needham,³ Shelia Hoar Zahm,¹ George W. Comstock,⁴ and Nathaniel Rothman¹

¹Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; ²Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; ³National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; ⁴Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Abstract

Increases in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) incidence and mortality rates during the past few decades remain largely unexplained. Studies suggest that organochlorine pesticides may contribute to an increased risk of NHL. In 1974, serum samples were obtained from 25,802 participants in the Campaign Against Cancer and Stroke in Washington County, Maryland (USA) , and cryopreserved for future study. We measured prediagnostic levels of chlordane, lindane (-hexachlorocyclohexane) , ß-hexachlorocyclohexane, transnonachlor, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, oxychlordane, dieldrin, and hexachlorobenzene in serum samples of 74 cases of NHL and 147 matched controls. Previously, we found an association between NHL and serum levels of total PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) , but not DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and related compounds. In this instance, there was no evidence of an association between NHL risk and serum levels of any of the individual lipid- and recovery-corrected organochlorines that we evaluated, nor of the summed chlordane-related compounds (transnonachlor, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, oxychlordane) . These findings do not support the hypothesis that the organochlorine compounds included in this study are strongly linked to the development of NHL. The possibility of a weak association cannot be excluded by these data. Key words: chlordane, dieldrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexane, lindane, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, organochlorine. Environ Health Perspect 111:179-183 (2003) . doi:10.1289/ehp.4347 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 15 November 2002]