Agent Orange Linked to Increased Risk of MGUS in Some Vietnam Veterans

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By Miriam Falco on Thursday, October 15, 2015

US Air Force veterans who participated in the spraying missions of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War have a more than twofold increased risk of developing a condition called monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, or MGUS, a precursor to multiple myeloma. An association between Agent Orange and multiple myeloma has been suspected based on other studies involving farmers and agriculture workers, but this study provides the first direct evidence linking Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange with MGUS.

A team of researchers led by Ola Landgren, Chief of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Myeloma Service, analyzed serum samples from 459 US Air Force personnel involved in aerial herbicide spray missions during the Vietnam War, as well as 459 samples from veterans who served there at the same time but were uninvolved in the spraying missions.

Plane spraying Agent Orange over a forest.
Agent Orange was an herbicide spayed during the Vietnam War to strip forests of their protective foliage. New research has linked US Air Force veterans involved in those spraying missions with an increased risk of MGUS.
All of these veterans served between 1962 and 1971, when the US military dropped more than 19 million gallons of herbicides in Southeast Asia during Operation Ranch Hand.

Researchers tested for the presence of MGUS and also concentrations of TCDD, a contaminant of Agent Orange that’s been classified as a human carcinogen since 1997.

They found 7.1 percent of Ranch Hand veterans had MGUS, a precursor of multiple myeloma, compared with only 3.1 percent of the comparison group, says Dr. Landgren — a more than twofold higher risk. The risk of getting MGUS was significantly higher among veterans younger than 70 years of age.

The researchers also found that those vets who developed MGUS had higher TCDD levels in their blood samples.

“This provides the first direct scientific evidence that there is a link between Agent Orange and the development of multiple myeloma [in Ranch Hand participants],” Dr. Landgren explains.

The findings were published in JAMA Oncology on September 3.

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