Thursday, June 24, 2010

Oh crap.

I just read over on this Wordpress blog that people who are born to older fathers have a higher risk of developing non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Holy crap that's weird because my dad was 55 when Lucy was born. Contributing factor? I think so.

I'm reading the report now and it says that "the study revealed that participants born to fathers older than age 40 faced a 59 percent greater risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma compared to similar women born to fathers younger than 25."

Ugh. Not cool.

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 24, 2010

    I'm glad you found my blog and came upon this information, Jenny. Can't wait to read your future posts.

    Take care,

    Mary

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  2. NHL runs in my family, so I'm going to watch out for this. Thanks for posting.

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  3. I know this post is old but I just came across your blog and found this.

    This post struck me b/c I read in a cancer journal that leukemia incidence is significantly higher in children born to fathers who had received x-rays to the abdomen which caused DNA mutations in the spermatazoa which are then passed on into children. It might also be true in some other cancers as well, especially lymphoma since it is a close cousin of leukemia.

    I'm sure you know that x-rays are one of the MOST POTENT carcinogens known to man because they have direct access to a cell's DNA and can cause double-strand DNA breaks and directly create "Reactive Oxygen Species" which cause further mutations which.

    If you're looking for possible factors in your sister's case you might ask your father if he ever had any type of abdominal/pelvic/spinal x-rays (Barium enema, CT Scan, barium swallow etc) at any time in his life before your sister was conceived.

    Here is a link to the abstract of the article I mentioned on Pubmed. You can read the article for free

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7881337

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  4. Oh and the reason I mention this in connection with your father is because you mentioned his age was 55. Well, a lot of men starting having stomach and other digestive issues as they get older which would mean they are more likely to have had abdominal x-rays by the time they conceive. This could possibly explain the increase in lymphoma in children to older fathers that you mention. I'm not an expert but just wanted to pass that on to you in case your interested. If not then I apologize. I hope all the best for your sister.

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