Citation

Kim AI, Goergen H, Engert A, LaCasce AS, Maranda L, Barton B, Borchmann S. Hemasphere 2019; 3(2): e183.

Affiliation

Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Wolters Kluwer)

DOI

10.1097/HS9.0000000000000183

PMID

31723822

PMCID

PMC6746042

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is an increased risk of suicide in European Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) patients compared to the general European population. European HL patients enrolled in the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) HD7 through HD15 studies were analyzed and standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was calculated using suicide mortality rates for the general European population. Case-control analysis was performed to identify characteristics associated with risk of death by suicide. Among 12,202 European HL patients observed for 94,972 person-years, 19 suicides (17 males and 2 females) were identified resulting in a SMR 1.63 (95% CI: 1.01-2.50, p = 0.046). The only characteristic associated with a statistically significant increased risk of suicide was male sex with an odds ratio (OR) 8.42 (95% CI = 1.04-67.85; p = 0.046) on multivariate analysis. These findings were confirmed in an independently analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) validation dataset. European HL patients have a significantly increased incidence of suicide compared to the general European population. Male HL patients have a greater than 8-fold increased risk of suicide compared to female HL patients. Further study of social risk factors associated with an increased risk of suicide in HL patients is needed.

Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the European Hematology Association.

Language: en

Keywords

European; German Hodgkin Study Group; Hodgkin lymphoma; Male; Suicide