Gestational risk factors such as birth weight, gestational age and parity have been repeatedly found to be related to pediatric cancers, but few reports have emerged from Asian countries. Here we report on demographic and gestational factors in a Taiwanese cohort. Our study included all children born in Taiwan 2004-2014 for whom there was a birth record (n = 2,079,037), of which 1900 children had been diagnosed with cancer prior to age 12. We conducted multivariable hazard regression to examine associations between demographic and gestational factors with cancer. Greater parity (family with 2+ older children) was related to acute myeloid leukemia [Hazard ratio (HR) = 2.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.31, 3.55), central nervous system tumors (

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Spina bifida has been reported to co-occur with pediatric cancer, but comprehensive evaluations remained elusive. We investigated this cooccurrence in two large, population-based studies in Taiwan (N=1900 cancer cases, 2,077,137 controls) and Denmark (N=5508 cases, 137,700 controls). Analyses in Denmark were restricted to the period before prenatal diagnostics became available ( 2004) and pregnancy terminations of fetuses with birth defects became more common. Using national patient and cancer registries, we linked spina bifida and cancer diagnoses among cases and non-cases. The risk of spina bifida among all cancer cases was increased and similar in Denmark [odds ratio (OR)=8.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.1-13.8] and Taiwan (OR=8.5, 95% CI 4.0-17.8), particularly for central nervous system (CNS) tumors (Denmark: OR=16.3, 95% CI 8.1-33.0; Taiwan: OR=26.6, 95% CI 8.5, 83.1), including benign CNS tumors (Denmark: OR=41.5, 95% CI 21.2, 81.4). These findings suggest the need for comprehensive investigation of shared risk factors in the link between spina bifida and pediatric cancer.