Chlamydia link to ocular adnexal lymphoma confirmed

A bacterium may play a role as a causative antigen in the development of ocular adnexal lymphoma, a new study suggests. The study, which was performed in Korea, confirms the findings of a study from Italy published last year.

Changhoon You, MD, and colleagues in Seoul performed the study to confirm the relationship between Chlamydia psittaci and ocular adnexal lymphoma. The study authors extracted DNA from 33 patients diagnosed with ocular adnexal lymphoma and 21 patients with non-neoplastic ocular adnexal disease. The median patient age was 42 years, with a range of 22 to 73 years.

Polymerase chain reaction testing was used to identify three Chlamydia species. C. psittaci was highly associated with ocular adnexal lymphoma, being found in 78% of patients with the lymphoma and in only 23% of those with non-neoplastic disease (P < .001).

Direct DNA sequencing of C. psittaci was performed in 10 cases with C. psittaci infection, and six different sequences of the bacteria were identified, the study authors said. In both groups of patients, infection with other types of Chlamydia were low. No C. trachomatis infection was seen; C. pneumoniae infection was found in 9% of those with ocular adnexal lymphoma and 4.7% of those with non-neoplastic disease.

“In the future, eradication of the bacteria could be a common treatment for low-grade lymphoma, replacing current cytotoxic chemotherapy or radiation,” Dr. You said in an Associated Press story describing the study. Dr. You presented results of the study in Paris at the European Cancer Conference.