Background: In the year 2010, it is estimated that nearly 0.36 million new cases and 0.19 million deaths withNon-Hodgkin lymphoma occurred. In India, among males, NHL incidence rates vary across the country whichhas encouraged us to conduct a case-control study to study risk factors. Materials and Methods: The presentunmatched hospital-based case-control study conducted at Tata Memorial Hospital included subjects registeredbetween the years 1997-99. There were 390 ‘lymphoma cases’ and 1,383 ‘normal controls. Results: Data onage, tobacco habits, occupational history, dietary factors, tea, coffee were collected by the social investigators.Univariate and multivariate methods were applied for obtaining the odds ratios for risk factors. Conclusions: Inthe study, cigarette smoking (OR=2.0) and bidi smoking (OR=2.8), were associated with excess risk of lymphoma.Among the dietary items, only consumption of mutton showed 7.3-fold significant excess risk for lymphoma.Consumption of milk showed a 6-fold excess risk (OR=1.5); while coffee showed a 50% reduction in risk forlymphoma. Among occupational exposure, exposure to use of pesticides showed 3-fold excess risk for lymphoma.
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