Female survivors of childhood cancer: preterm birt... [J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006] - PubMed result

HHS HealthBeat (November 10, 2009)
After cancer, babies

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Childhood cancer survivors increasingly are living to ages when they want to have children themselves. The question is whether their treatment – or the cancer itself – could affect the babies or them.

At Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Eric Chow and Beth Mueller looked for answers by comparing childhood cancer survivors with people who had not had cancer:

[Beth Mueller speaks] "I think our results are reassuring. Among populations of survivors who were able to get pregnant or father children, their infants don’t appear to have an increased risk of malformations or infant death."

But Mueller says there were some increased risks, such as for preterm births and low birth weight, so it’s wise to see a doctor.

The study in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November, 09 2009



J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006 Oct 18;98(20):1453-61.

Female survivors of childhood cancer: preterm birth and low birth weight among their children.
Signorello LB, Cohen SS, Bosetti C, Stovall M, Kasper CE, Weathers RE, Whitton JA, Green DM, Donaldson SS, Mertens AC, Robison LL, Boice JD Jr.

International Epidemiology Institute, 1455 Research Blvd., Ste. 550, Rockville, MD 20850, USA. lisa.signorello@intepi.org

Comment in:
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006 Oct 18;98(20):1434-5.

BACKGROUND: Improved survival after childhood cancer raises concerns over the possible long-term reproductive health effects of cancer therapies. We investigated whether children of female childhood cancer survivors are at elevated risk of being born preterm or exhibiting restricted fetal growth and evaluated the associations of different cancer treatments on these outcomes. METHODS: Using data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, a large multicenter cohort of childhood cancer survivors, we studied the singleton live births of female cohort members from 1968 to 2002. Included were 2201 children of 1264 survivors and 1175 children of a comparison group of 601 female siblings. Data from medical records were used to determine cumulative prepregnancy exposures to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for the association between quantitative therapy exposures and preterm (<37 weeks) birth, low birth weight (<2.5 kg), and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) (lowest 10th percentile) births. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: Survivors' children were more likely to be born preterm than the siblings' children (21.1% versus 12.6%; OR = 1.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4 to 2.4; P<.001). Compared with the children of survivors who did not receive any radiotherapy, the children of survivors treated with high-dose radiotherapy to the uterus (>500 cGy) had increased risks of being born preterm (50.0% versus 19.6%; OR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.5 to 8.0; P = .003), low birth weight (36.2% versus 7.6%; OR = 6.8, 95% CI = 2.1 to 22.2; P = .001), and SGA (18.2% versus 7.8%; OR = 4.0, 95% CI = 1.6 to 9.8; P = .003). Increased risks were also apparent at lower uterine radiotherapy doses (starting at 50 cGy for preterm birth and at 250 cGy for low birth weight). CONCLUSIONS: Late effects of treatment for female childhood cancer patients may include restricted fetal growth and early births among their offspring, with risks concentrated among women who receive pelvic irradiation.

PMID: 17047194 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMCID: 2730161

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Female survivors of childhood cancer: preterm birt... [J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006] - PubMed result