Childhood Cancer May Be Associated with Birth Defects

Kids born with birth defects were three times more likely to have a childhood cancer, study finds

The findings of a new study suggest that children born with a variety of birth defects have a higher risk of developing certain types of childhood cancers, particularly during the stage of infancy.

But the cancers are generally uncommon and the researchers cannot say one condition is causing the other. It only shows that a link exists.

According to Susan Carozza, a cancer researcher at Oregon State University in Corvallis, the result does more or less “point to a global relationship to whatever is driving birth defects and what is driving childhood cancers.”

For the study, Carozza and her team consolidated several databases from Texas in order to ascertain the number of kids born in the state between 1996 and 2005, the number of those born with birth defects as well as those who eventually developed cancer.

The researchers found that within that 10-year period, more than three million kids were born in Texas, and an estimated four percent — approximately 116,000 — of those babies suffered from one or more birth defects like Down syndrome and cleft palates.

Childhood cancers in kids with birth defects

Of all the kids born in Texas, about 2,350 — or .08 percent — developed cancer during the period of the study. Of those children, 239 had been born with a birth defect.

The investigators estimated that kids who were born with birth defects had three times higher chances of developing a childhood cancer compared to those born without birth defects.

Cancers such as leukemias, eye and soft tissue cancers as well as those of the ovaries and testis all appeared to have a higher prevalence among kids born with birth defects, except those who had a musculoskeletal deformity, the study found.

The link connecting birth defects to other childhood cancers was still noted even when the researchers took into consideration the already accepted association between leukemia and Down syndrome.

Carozza said that they obtained the same findings — “the same pattern.” The study is published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Moreover, Carozza and her fellow researchers found that among kids who had birth defects, those who were below one year old had the greatest risk of developing a childhood cancer.

According to Reuters Health, Dr. Sonia Partap, who studied links between birth defects and brain tumors, wrote in an email that it is vital for parents and physicians providing care to kids suffering from birth defects to be aware that childhood cancer is not common.

Partap, who’s connected with Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California, said that the study is “exciting” in offering indications of the genetic associations of childhood cancer which can probably lead to the development of modern and improved therapies in the future.

With regard to the reason why there is a link, Carozza said that there could be some explanations. She said that the children’s genetic background and environment may also contribute, together with changes in the way an individual’s internal organs are structured or lifestyle differences in kids born with or without birth defects.

Regrettably, Carozza said, prevention strategies are presently non-existent for cancers affecting children.

According to her, “no good screening” currently exists from the side of cancer. “There is no parallel to a mammogram. It just doesn’t exist for childhood cancer now,” Carozza added.

Reuters Health said that Partap, who was not connected with the new study, said that all parents need to get involved in proper well-child care with their children’s doctors as recommended.