Celiac Disease and Risk for Lymphoma

Celiac disease (CD) is a gluten-sensitive autoimmune enteropathy that leads to intestinal villous atrophy. Although an elevated risk for intestinal lymphomas is well established in patients with CD, the relationship between lymphoma and the lack of mucosal healing on gluten-free diets is unknown.

Now, investigators have performed a retrospective, population-based, cohort study to identify all CD patients in the Swedish National Pathology Database who had a duodenal or jejunal biopsy between 6 months and 5 years after an initial diagnostic biopsy. Patients with mucosal healing versus persistent villous atrophy were assessed for the development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), and the incidence of NHL was assessed in these patient groups and the…