Very high birth weight of offspring is associated with an increased risk of leukemia in their mothers: Results of a population-based cohort study

Abstract

Although the association between birthweight and childhood leukemia is well-described, the relation between a child's birthweight and parental risk of leukemia is unknown. We linked data from the Jerusalem Perinatal study to the Israel Cancer Registry to ascertain the incidence of leukemia in mothers and fathers in relation to their offspring's birthweight. Birthweight ≥4500 gm in any of the offspring was associated with a >3-fold risk of leukemia in mothers, but not fathers. Potential mechanisms include shared exposures of high-birthweight infants and their mothers, possibly to radiation or growth factors, or genetic pathways leading to both high birthweight and leukemia.

High Bab Birth Weight Andof Hormone-Associated Cancer in Mothers: The Cancer–Cardiovascular Disease Dichotomy and its Possible Causes

“…The studies also use different end points, such as cancer site or potential role of environmental factors (smoking-related vs smoking-unrelated cancers). The data on tumor localization seems most important, as among the nine studies showing evidence of BW and cancer incidence, positive correlations of most of the tumors were hormone-associated (breast cancer in eight studies, endometrial and ovarian cancer in two studies) with only one study mentioning hormone-independent cancer (leukemia) [42]. In some cases, the breast cancer morbidity association with baby BW was more evident in women older than 50 years [20,44].…”

“…The prevalence of CVDs among the causes of death in adult women with LBW history compared with cancer deaths warrants the search for some additional explanations [13,27,50,51]. In particular, the increased risk of breast cancer in women with HBW may be influenced by the number and properties of stem cells during the intrauterine period, this factor relates to mammographic density in later life, the effects of excess estrogen levels on stem cells or the shift in the MAPK/estrogen receptor-α ratio in the mammary gland tissue [13,52–56]. However, these factors cannot be the cause of the positive association between BW and adult cancer mortality in men [27].…”

“…However, these factors cannot be the cause of the positive association between BW and adult cancer mortality in men [27]. On the other hand, taking into consideration other hormone-like and growth factors (including IGF-1), epigenetic and genetic variations, ethnic differences, role of secular trend (acceleration) and some other assumptions, this research field looks increasingly important for understanding the relations between intrauterine factors and adult cancer morbidity [26,51–55,57,58].…”