Parental Age and Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Pooled Analysis

: Epidemiology. 2009 Apr 15. [Epub ahead of print]
Parental Age and Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Pooled Analysis.Johnson KJ, Carozza SE, Chow EJ, Fox EE, Horel S, McLaughlin CC, Mueller BA, Puumala SE, Reynolds P, Von Behren J, Spector LG.
From the aDivision of Epidemiology/Clinical Research, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota;bDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, Texas;cPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington;dDepartment of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington;eCancer Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, Texas;fNew York State Cancer Registry, New York Department of Health, Albany, New York;gDepartment of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA;hNorthern California Cancer Center, Berkeley, California; and iUniversity of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

BACKGROUND:: Few risk factors for childhood cancer are well-established. We investigated whether advancing parental age increases childhood cancer risk. METHODS:: We assessed the relationship between parental age and childhood cancer in a case-control study using pooled population-based data. Our pooling was based on linked cancer and birth registry records from New York, Washington, Minnesota, Texas, and California. Subjects included 17,672 cancer cases diagnosed at ages 0-14 years during 1980-2004 and 57,966 controls born during 1970-2004. Individuals with Down syndrome were excluded. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by logistic regression for the association between parental age and childhood cancer after adjustment for sex, birth weight, gestational age, birth order, plurality, maternal race, birth year, and state. RESULTS:: Positive linear trends per 5-year maternal age increase were observed for childhood cancers overall (odds ratio = 1.08 [95% confidence interval = 1.06-1.10]) and 7 of the 10 most frequent diagnostic groups: leukemia (1.08 [1.05-1.11]), lymphoma (1.06 [1.01-1.12]),central nervous system tumors (1.07 [1.03-1.10]), neuroblastoma (1.09 [1.04-1.15]), Wilms' tumor (1.16 [1.09-1.22]), bone tumors (1.10 [1.00-1.20]), and soft tissue sarcomas (1.10 [1.04-1.17]). No maternal ageeffect was noted for retinoblastoma, germ cell tumors, or hepatoblastoma. Paternal age was not independently associated with most childhood cancers after adjustment for maternal age. CONCLUSIONS:: Our results suggest that older maternal age increases risk for most common childhood cancers. Investigation into possible mechanisms for this association is warranted.

PMID: 19373093 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]