Health

Parental age may be associated with childhood cancer risk, but further research is needed

Recent meta-analyses aim to clarify the relationship between parental age and solid tumors in childhood cancer, but more research is needed to overcome the limits of available research. ..

Past studies have associated older parental ages with pediatrics Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (All), however, studies of childhood solid tumors and parental age have not created a definitive link.Recently to clarify the relationship between parental age and pediatric solid tumor cancer Meta-analysis Population Aggregate data from registry-based studies.

Analysis published in JNCI cancer spectrumWe used population-based studies to minimize potential selection bias associated with formats such as questionnaire-based case-control studies. Researchers have drawn data from 15 studies, including 10 pediatric solid tumors, all obtained from Medline and Embase searches for registry-based studies of solid tumors and parental age. The study included a total of 30,323 cases and 3,499,934 controls.

Researchers have identified several types of cancer that may be related to the age of the mother.A 5-year increase in maternal age was associated with an increase in the odds ratio (odds ratio) of central nervous system (CNS) tumors. [OR]1.07; 95% CI, 1.04-1.10); Ependymoma (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.07-1.29); Astrocyte tumor (OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.05-1.15); Rhabdomyosarcoma (OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.01-1.26); and germ cell tumors (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.12).

Combined with increased odds for solid tumors and lymphoma, a 5-year increase in maternal age was associated with an OR of 1.05 (95% CI, 1.03-1.07).

The relationship between paternal age and childhood cancer was also investigated, and in this dataset, an increase in age at 5 years was only significantly associated with an increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (OR, 1.06; 95% CI). , 1.00 to 1.12). Combining the odds of childhood lymphoma and solid tumors, the OR was 1.02 (95% CI, 1.02-1.04) when the father’s age increased by 5 years.

“Currently, registry-based studies on father’s age available for analysis are limited, and certain registries do not contain father’s age data,” the author writes. Current literature. Given the strong correlation between mother’s age and father’s birth age, the authors said it was also difficult to determine a clear link between mother and father’s birth age.

Researchers were surprised that there was no association between father’s age and birth age for most cancer types. It is known that as the father’s age increases, the likelihood of mutations in the child increases. They also added that fathers usually transmit more mutations than mothers. “The abundance of null findings in this analysis was unexpected, as the mechanism by which father’s age influences the risk of childhood cancer is plausible and well-understood,” the author writes.

The registry-based nature of the study was an important strength, but it was limited by factors such as the rarity of some cancer types included and the limited number of registry-based studies on a particular cancer type. I did.

Overall, the findings suggest a link between the age of older mothers and cancers other than leukemia. Although it is difficult to determine the possible association between father’s age and childhood cancer, the data also suggest that there may be an association that should be discovered. Future research efforts may be aimed at further investigating the relationship and analyzing the potential association between mutation profile and parental age.

reference

Domingues A, Moore KJ, Sample J, Kharoud H, Marcotte EL, Spector LG Parental Age and Risk of Pediatric Lymphoma and Solid Tumors: Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.JNCI cancer spectrum.. Published online May 27, 2022. doi: 10.1093 / jncics / pkac040

ExBulletin

Parental age may be associated with childhood cancer risk, but further research is needed