Genetic Relationships in Familial Leukemia and Lymphoma

Thirty-nine multiple family cases have been recorded with 77 pairs and 91 involved relatives having leukemia or lymphoma. Thirty-two of the 39 families involved a close genetic relationship between affected siblings or parent-child pairs. The multiple family case members died earlier than single family case members on a comparative study. This suggests that genetic factors are of importance in the etiology of these malignant hematologic proliferations.