Research from the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota indicates that a baby born to an older mother may have a slightly increased risk for many of the cancers that occur during childhood.
“Our finding shows that although the absolute risk is low, advancing maternal age may be a factor and explain why, after other factors are adjusted for, some children get cancer,” said Logan Spector, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and cancer epidemiology researcher. Spector and Kimberly Johnson, Ph.D., post doctoral fellow in pediatric epidemiology, led the research team on this study. The results are published in the July 2009 issue of the journal Epidemiology.
Currently, about 1 in 435 children under the age of 15 in the United States gets cancer. Types of cancers most often affecting children include leukemia, lymphoma, central nervous system tumor, neuroblastoma, Wilms’ tumor, bone cancer, and soft tissue sarcoma.
For this population-based case-control study, Spector and Johnson used information from birth registry records in New York, Washington, Minnesota, Texas, and California. The study included the records of 17,672 children in those states diagnosed with cancer at ages 0-14 years between 1980 and 2004 and 57,966 children not diagnosed with cancer.
“We saw that the risk of 7 of the 10 most common childhood cancers increased slightly, about 7-10 percent, with every five-year increase in maternal age,” Spector said.
By University of Minnesota
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
