Childhood Cancer Mortality and Birth Characteristics in Korea: A National Population-based Birth Cohort Study

To examine the relationship between birth characteristics and childhood cancer mortality, a retrospective cohort study of Korean children was conducted using data collected by the national birth register between 1995 and 2006, which were then individually linked to death data. A cohort of 6,479,406 children was followed from birth until their death or until December 31, 2006. Poisson regression analyses were used to calculate rate ratios of childhood cancer deaths according to birth characteristics. A total of 1,469 cancer deaths were noted and the childhood cancer mortality rate was found to be 3.43 per 100,000 person-years in Korea during the period of 1995-2006. The birth characteristics examined in this study (i.e. , birth weight, gestational age, multiple births, parental ages, and number of siblings) were generally found to be not significantly associated with childhood cancer mortality, and the associations did not vary meaningfully with gender nor with cancer sites. However, among children aged 5-11 yr, higher birth weight was associated with elevated childhood cancer mortality (rate ratio = 1.28, 95% confidence interval 1.04-1.58). Our results offer no overall associations between childhood cancer mortality and birth characteristics, but suggest that the association may be specific to age group

Birth characteristics and childhood malignant central nervous sytem tumors: the ESCALE study (French Society for Childhood Cancer).

International audienceBACKGROUND: Determining the role of pre- and perinatal factors in the aetiology of childhood malignant central nervous (CNS) tumors, using data from the French national case-control study, ESCALE. METHODS: ESCALE included all children in France less than 15 years old with a diagnosis of acute leukaemia, lymphoma, malignant CNS tumor, or neuroblastoma (2003-2004). In all, 209 malignant CNS tumor cases (80% of the eligible cases) and 1681 population-based controls (71%) were included using quotas ensuring frequency matching with the cases by age and gender. Case and control mothers were interviewed using a standardised telephone interview, which elicited birth characteristics, congenital malformation, maternal reproductive history, and use of assisted reproductive technologies for the index child. RESULTS: The cases and controls did not differ in terms of gestational age at birth, birth weight, birth order, breastfeeding, or parental age at birth. There was no association between assisted reproduction for the index child and malignant CNS tumor (OR=1.1 [0.6-2.2]). A positive association between a maternal history of one miscarriage and malignant CNS tumor was observed (OR=1.4 [1.0-2.0], p<0.05), especially for glial cell tumors (other glioma: OR=2.0 [1.1-3.6]). CONCLUSION: The results suggest a possible association between a maternal history of one miscarriage and the risk of malignant CNS tumor

Vaccination and the risk of childhood acute leukaemia: the ESCALE study (SFCE).

BACKGROUND: In 2002, a poster alerted the French health authorities to the possibility that the risk of childhood leukaemia might be increased by hepatitis B vaccination. Elucidating the role of vaccination in the aetiology of childhood acute leukaemia (AL) was therefore included in the objectives of an ongoing national study. METHODS: The ESCALE study was a French national population-based case-control study conducted in France in 2003 and 2004 in order to investigate the role of infectious, environmental and genetic factors in four childhood neoplastic diseases (leukaemia, lymphoma, neuroblastoma and brain tumour). The controls were randomly selected from the French population and age and gender frequency matched with the cases. A total of 776 cases of AL (91% of the eligible cases) and 1681 controls (71% of the eligible controls) were included. In a specific standardized telephone interview, which was the same for both the cases and controls, each mother was asked to read out her child's complete vaccination record. RESULTS: No association between vaccination and the risk of childhood AL: acute lymphoblastic leukaemia or acute myeloblastic leukaemia was observed. No relationship between the risk of leukaemia and the type of vaccine, number of doses of each vaccine, total number of injections, total number of vaccine doses or number of early vaccinations was evidenced. No confounding factor was observed. CONCLUSION: The study did not show any evidence of a role of vaccination in the aetiology of childhood leukaemia