With the caveat of the small number of patients with HT, there was a non‐significant trend towards higher MALT‐IPI scores (i.e. intermediate/high risk) in patients developing HT (P = 0·135), however, there was no difference in terms of primary localization, i.e. gastric versus extra‐gastric (P = 0·215), elevation of B2M (P = 0·301), plasmacytic differentiation (P = 0·728), presence of an autoimmune disease (P = 0·340), mean age at diagnosis (P = 0·951) and the year of diagnosis, based on a cut‐off in the middle of the recruitment period i.e. before 2008 versus from 2008 onwards (P = 0·564). This evidence concerns the gene B2M and autoimmune disease.