WALDENSTROMS MACROGLOBULINEMIA - SEARCH FOR OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE

Two cases of Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM) that occurred in emp loyees from one university academic department were investigated using approaches for both cluster and single case investigation. Common per sonal characteristics and potential past hazardous exposures were eval uated. The patients shared a young age at diagnosis, worked in the sam e building, and had similar duration of time between first entering th e building and diagnosis of WM. No evidence was found to support the o riginal hypothesis that exposure to radioactive material could be rela ted to the occurrence of WM. Although this investigation did not ident ify a common causal agent among two cases of a rare disease, investiga tions of disease clusters may be useful for developing etiologic hypot heses even when a full-scale epidemiologic study is not undertaken. De tailed descriptions of case characteristics can help generate ideas fo r further research.