Maternal Obesity, Birth Size, and Risk of Childhood Cancer Development
Menée aux Etats-Unis à partir de données portant sur 1 827 875 enfants sur la période 2003-2016, cette étude de cohorte analyse l'association entre une obésité maternelle, le poids de l'enfant à la naissance et le risque de cancer pédiatrique (2 352 cas de cancer, 747 cas de leucémie avant l'âge de 14 ans)
Infants and children are particularly vulnerable to in utero and early life exposures. Thus, a mother's exposures before and during pregnancy may have important consequences for her child's health, including cancer development. We examined whether birth certificate-derived maternal anthropometric characteristics are associated with increased risk of subsequent childhood cancer development, accounting for established maternal and infant risk factors. Pennsylvania birth and cancer registry files were linked by the state Department of Health, yielding a virtual cohort of births and childhood cancers from 2003 through 2016. The analysis included 1,827,875 infants (13,785,309 person-years at risk), with 2,352 children diagnosed with any cancer and 747 with leukemia before age 14. Children born to mothers with a body mass index ≥40 kg/m2 had 57% (12-120%) higher leukemia risk. Newborn size 30% higher than expected was associated with 2.2-fold and 1.8-fold hazard ratio for total childhood cancer and leukemia, respectively, relative to those with expected size. Being <30% of one's expected size also increased the total cancer risk (Pcurvilinearity<0.0001). Newborn size did not mediate the association between maternal obesity and childhood cancer. The results suggest a significant role of early life exposure to maternal obesity- and fetal growth-related factors in childhood cancer development.