Can a total knee replacement cause lymphoma?
Answers
The short answer: no. Lymphoma is a malignant transformation of cells in your lymph tissue. Essentially, it is a cancer of your lymph nodes. Risk factors for lymphoma include HIV infection, immunosuppression, infection with the EBV virus, infection with the HTLV-1 virus, infection with the bacteria H. pylori, and autoimmune disease. Certain congenital diseases can also put you at risk for developing lymphoma. The development of lymphoma could also be idiopathic, meaning that no good reason can be found for why lymphoma develops. A total knee replacement is a common surgery; the most common reason for knee replacement is arthritis that has progressed to the point that medications don't relieve the pain. Although a knee replacement could put you at increased risk for hemorrhage or infection, it does not put you at increased risk for lymphoma.
The long answer is maybe... There has been indications recently that cancer cells are full of and require the metal iron to replicate profusely, a little like plankton (see iron fertilization in Wikipedia) if the knee replacement contains stainless steel then it is theoretically possible that excess iron (see iron overload) can provide the environment to let a cancer develop. As to other metals, well the theory of aging and oxidants proposed by Denham_Harman 1956 suggest that aging (cancer is a symptom of aging) "Aging and the degnerate disease associated with it are attributed basically to the deleterious side attacks of free radicals on cell constituents and on the connective tissues. The free radicals probably arise largely through reactions involving molecular oxygen catalysed in the cell by oxidative enzymes and the connective tissues by traces of metals such as iron, cobalt, and manganese."
