Parental Age As A Risk Factor of Childhood Leukemia and Brain Cancer in Offspring

: Epidemiology. 1999 May;10(3):271-5.
Hemminki K, Kyyronen P, Vaittinen P.
Department of Biosciences at Novum, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden.

We use here the Swedish Family-Cancer Database to analyze the time trends in childhood leukemia and brain cancer between 1960 and 1994 and the effect of parental age on childhood leukemia and brain cancer of some 1500 cases each. The database includes all persons born in Sweden after 1940 with their biological parents, over 6 million individuals, whose cancers were retrieved from the Swedish Cancer Registry from years 1958-1994. Incidence in cancer increased from 1960 to 1994; low grade astrocytoma accounted for most of the increase, whereas high grade astrocytoma has not increased in incidence. There has been a moderate increase in leukemia to about 1980. We found a parental age effect for both leukemia and brain cancer, with the former (of about 50% excess in those over 35 years) being mediated by maternal age and the latter (of about 25% excess) by paternal age. Accumulation of chromosomal aberrations and mutations during the maturation of germ cells is a likely mechanism for these findings. They can help to explain partially the secular trends of these malignancies and the excess risks in offspring of the well educated.

PMID: 10230837 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

No abstract available unfortunately, if interested you have to buy the article.

1: Int J Epidemiol. 2007 Jun;36(3):691-2. Epub 2007 Jun 5.
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Comment on:
Int J Epidemiol. 2006 Dec;35(6):1495-503.
Parental age and risk of acute lymphocytic leukaemia and embryonal tumours in the Piedmont Region, Italy.
Maule MM, Vizzini L, Merletti F, Magnani C, Pastore G, Richiardi L.
PMID: 17550942 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Parental age and risk of childhood cancers: a population-based cohort study from Sweden

International Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/ije/dyl177


Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2006; all rights reserved.
Accepted July 10, 2006


Benjamin H. Yip 1, Yudi Pawitan 1, and Kamila Czene 1 *
1 Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden





Frequent germ line cells mutations were previously demonstrated to be associated with aging. This suggests a higher incidence of childhood cancer among children of older parents. A population-based cohort study of parental ages and other prenatal risk factors for five main childhood cancers was performed with the use of a linkage between several national-based registries.

Methods In total, about 4.3 million children with their parents, born between 1961 and 2000, were included in the study. Multivariate Poisson regression was used to obtain the incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Children <5 years of age and children 5-14 years of age were analysed independently.

Results There was no significant result for children 5-14 years of age. For children <5 years of age, maternal age were associated with elevated risk of retinoblastoma (oldest age group's IRR = 2.39, 95%CI = 1.17-4.85) and leukaemia (oldest age group's IRR = 1.44, 95%CI = 1.01-2.05). Paternal age was significantly associated with leukaemia (oldest age group's IRR = 1.31, 95%CI = 1.04-1.66). For central nervous system cancer, the effect of paternal age was found to be significant (oldest age group's IRR = 1.69, 95%CI = 1.21-2.35) when maternal age was included in the analysis.