Authors:
Greenop KR, Blair EM, Bower C, Armstrong BK, Milne E
Authors notes:
Pediatric Blood and Cancer. 2013:online
Keywords:
Birth weight, Brain tumours, Cancer, Child, Fetal growth, Gestational weight gain, Neonatal intensive care, Pregnancy
Abstract:
Childhood brain tumors (CBT) are the leading cause of cancer death in children, yet their causes are largely known.
This study investigated the association between maternal and birth characteristics and risk of CBT.
For this analysis, data on 319 case children and 1,079 control children were available.
No association was found between risk of CBT and birth weight, fetal growth, birth order, gestational age, or maternal body mass index.
The ORs for inadequate and excessive maternal gestational weight gain (GWG) were 1.8 and 1.4, respectively; similar findings for GWG were seen across categories of child's age, fetal growth, maternal body mass index and height, maternal smoking, and parental education.
Risk of low grade glioma appeared increased with preterm birth and admission to neonatal intensive care (NICU) for >2 days.
We found little evidence of associations between risk of CBT and most birth characteristics.
The associations we observed with GWG, prematurity and NICU admission require corroboration in other studies.