You are here

  • Home
  • Online First
  • Epidemiology of ophthalmic lymphoma in Canada during 1992–2010

Article Text

Article menu

other Versions

Download PDFPDF
Clinical science
Epidemiology of ophthalmic lymphoma in Canada during 1992–2010
  1. Rami Darwich1,2,
  2. Feras M Ghazawi3,4,
  3. Elham Rahme5,
  4. Nebras Alghazawi1,
  5. Andrei Zubarev1,
  6. Linda Moreau6,
  7. Denis Sasseville6,
  8. Miguel N Burnier Jr7,
  9. Ivan V Litvinov6
  1. 1Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  2. 2Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
  3. 3Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Gatineau, Ontario, Canada
  4. 4Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  5. 5Clinical Epidemiology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  6. 6Division of Dermatology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  7. 7The Henry C Witelson Ocular Pathology Laboratory, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ivan V Litvinov, Division of Dermatology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec H4A 3J1, Canada; ivan.litvinov{at}mcgill.ca

Abstract

Background Ophthalmic lymphoma (OL) is the most common orbital tumour, particularly in older individuals. Little is known about the epidemiology and geographic distribution of OL in Canada. Descriptive demographic statistics are an important first step in understanding OL burden and are necessary to inform comprehensive national cancer prevention programmes.

Methods We determined patterns of incidence and geographical distribution of the three major subtypes of OL: extranodal marginal zone B cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma (FL) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Here, we used cases that were diagnosed during 1992–2010 using two independent population-based cancer registries, the Canadian Cancer Registry and Le Registre Québécois du Cancer (LRQC).

Results The OL mean annual age-standardised incidence rate for 1992–2010 was 0.65 cases per million people per year with an average annual increase in the incidence rate of 4.5% per year. The mean age of diagnosis was 65 years. OL incidence rate was the highest in the cities located along the heavily industrialised Strait of Georgia in British Columbia.

Conclusions Our data on patient age, sex and temporal trends showed similarities with data reported in the USA and Denmark. Additional studies are needed to determine whether the observed increase in OL incidence is genuine or spurious.

  • ocular lymphomas
  • incidence in Canada
  • epidemiology in Canada

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2019-314653

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors RD: analysed data and wrote the paper, prepared response to reviewers; FMG: obtained and analysed data and co-wrote the paper; ER: performed statistical analyses; NA: prepared figures and co-wrote the paper; AZ: analysed the data, prepared figures and co-wrote the paper; LM: prepared figures and co-wrote the paper; DS: supervised the project, analysed the data and co-wrote the paper; MNB: supervised the project, analysed the data and co-wrote the paper, and IVL: supervised the project, analysed the data and co-wrote the paper.

    • Funding This work was supported by the Cole Foundation Grant to Dr. IVL, Canadian Dermatology Foundation research grants to Dr DS and Dr IVL and the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ# 34753 and 36769) research grants to Dr IVL. No funding bodies had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval In accordance with institutional policy, this study received an exemption from the McGill University Research Ethics Board review.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available in a public, open access repository.