Genome-wide association study implicates immune dysfunction in the development of Hodgkin lymphoma.

Abstract

To further our understanding of inherited susceptibility to Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), we performed a meta-analysis of seven genome-wide association studies totalling 5,325 HL cases and 22,423 controls. We identify five new HL risk loci at 6p21.31 (rs649775, P = 2.11 × 10-10), 6q23.3 (rs1002658, P = 2.97 × 10-8), 11q23.1 (rs7111520, P = 1.44 × 10-11), 16p11.2 (rs6565176, P = 4.00 × 10-8) and 20q13.12 (rs2425752, P = 2.01 × 10-8). Integration of gene expression, histone modification and in situ promoter capture Hi-C data at the five new and 13 known risk loci implicates dysfunction of the germinal centre reaction, disrupted T-cell differentiation and function, and constitutive NF-κB activation as mechanisms of predisposition. These data provide further insights into the genetic susceptibility and biology of HL.