What are the risk factors for developing follicular lymphoma?

What are the risk factors for developing
follicular lymphoma?

The risk factors for developing follicular lymphoma are not completely understood.

There are some some would consider certain types of infections, viral infections or certain types of exposures might be risk factors, but it's often a disease that we don't
necessarily know what triggered it.

And that particular patient, there's a small percentage that might be familial, meaning it can be hereditary risk factors, but that's a very small percentage.

And in most cases that's not the case.

But we think in in many cases it might be some sort of previous viral infection or some other type of infection that might have triggered the genetic changes inside those cells.

Follicle lymphoma arises, you know, really we think from kind of accidents or just you know, sort of intrinsic errors and the ability of the immune system to replicate itself to, you know, to produce DNA that produces new cells.

And so the vast majority of cases of follicular lymphoma and really all lymphomas have no specific risk factor.

It's this process of how the immune system regulates itself and and and all these different features of the disease.

There are some specific features that ca raise the risk of of lymphomas, including follicular lymphoma.

So, you know, persons with certain autoimmune diseases will have a much higher incidence of follicular lymphoma persons on certain immunosuppressants, including things like patients that have had like solid organ or bone marrow stem cell transplants.

They can have a higher risk of flicker lymphoma and then certain, you know, exposure to certain medications.

It's unusual for follicular lymphoma to occur is sort of hereditary or things that pass along in families.

But on rare occasion, there are what we call familial follicular lymphoma, where, you know, a patient has some sort of underlying immune deficiency or immune, you know, kind of problem that is inherited, that does raise the risk of follicular lymphoma.

But the vast majority of patients have no particular list risk and in no particular sort of avoidable risk of something, you know, I'm going to stop smoking or, you know, exercise more to kind of lower your incidence of follicular lymphoma.