Incidence of Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia
LJ Herrinton and NS Weiss
Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle.
This study sought to determine the incidence and pattern of occurrence of
Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia, a plasmacytoid lymphocyte malignancy that
involves monoclonal production of the IgM M-component type. Cases with
Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia have been reported since 1978 to the
population-based cancer registry that serves western Washington state, and
since 1988 to the eight other cancer registries that participate in the
National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results
program. Persons less than 85 years old newly diagnosed with Waldenstrom's
macroglobulinemia were identified through 1989. The age-standardized annual
incidence rate was 6.1 per million in white men and 2.5 per million in
white women (1980 US standard). Only five cases were reported in black
women, among whom the age-standardized annual incidence rate was 3.6 per
million. No cases were reported among black men (5.8 cases expected, based
on the rates in white men); this finding may be due to chance,
underdiagnosis of Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia in this group, or may
reflect a truly low rate. Further investigation of a large, racially
diverse population is required to better characterize the epidemiology of
this rare disease.
Volume 82,
Issue 10,
pp. 3148-3150,
11/15/1993
Copyright © 1993 by The American Society of Hematology
