Rationale and Design of the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph) Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Subtypes Project

Background: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), the most common hematologic malignancy, consists of numerous subtypes. The etiology of NHL is incompletely understood, and increasing evidence suggests that risk factors may vary by NHL subtype. However, small numbers of cases have made investigation of subtype-specific risks challenging. The International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium therefore undertook the NHL Subtypes Project, an international collaborative effort to investigate the etiologies of NHL subtypes. This article describes in detail the project rationale and design. Methods: We pooled individual-level data from 20 case-control studies (17 471 NHL cases, 23 096 controls) from North Ame…