What Causes Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma?

This content has been reviewed and approved by

James O. Armitage, MD
The Joe Shapiro Professor of Internal Medicine
Section of Oncology/Hematology
University of Nebraska Medical Center

The exact cause of most non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is not known. There are almost certainly factors in our environment that cause the disease, but we rarely know what those factors are. It is known that exposure to certain chemicals used in farming can increase the risk of lymphoma. Patients with severe immune deficiencies are more likely to develop lymphoma as are patients with diseases of the immune system, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

In recent years, it has become apparent that a number of microorganisms are associated with the development of lymphoma. The bacterial Helicobacter pylori, which is a cause of stomach ulcers, also is associated with developing lymphomas in the stomach. The human T-cell lymphoma virus-I (HTLV-1) causes a specific type of lymphoma that is particularly frequent in southern Japan and the Caribbean, but rare in most of the United States.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) predisposes patients to developing lymphoma. However, this is often associated with infection by a second virus called the Epstein-Barr virus, which is the virus that causes mononucleosis. The Epstein-Barr virus also seems to cause lymphomas in patients who have undergone organ transplantation and are severely immunosuppressed (less able to fight disease). It is likely that more associations between specific microorganisms and lymphoma will be discovered in the future.

Since a great majority of patients have lymphomas of unknown cause, it is impossible to know how they might have changed their behavior to prevent the disease. We do know that lymphomas are not contagious and most do not appear to be hereditary.