We found a small increased risk of childhood ALL with increasing paternal age

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Apr 26. [Epub ahead of print]

Parental age, family size, and offspring's risk of childhood and adult acute leukemia.

Larfors G, Hallbook H, Simonsson B.

Source

1Dep of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

An association between childhood acute leukemia and advanced parental age was observed more than fifty years ago, and the association has been repeated in several, but not all, subsequent studies. In contrast to the many studies addressing childhood leukemia, few have included adult patients.

METHODS:

In this register-based case-control study we examined the association between parental age and incidence of acute leukemia in 2660 childhood cases and 4412 adult cases of acute leukemia, compared to 28288 age-matched controls selected from a population-based register. Relative risks were estimated with conditional logistic regression.

RESULTS:

We found a small increased risk of childhood ALL with increasing paternal age (adjusted odds ratio 1.05 per five year increase in age). Risk estimates were similar for childhood AML, whereas no association was found with adult leukemia. Meanwhile, we observed a decreased risk of adult AML with increasing number of siblings, both older and younger.

CONCLUSIONS:

The results support the idea of a prenatal etiology of leukemia, but indicate that parental age effects are limited to childhood cases. Impact: This is the first large study on parental age and leukemia risk, which include adult cases. The finding on family size and risk of adult acute myeloid leukemia needs to be validated in future studies.

PMID:

22539609

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]