Authors:
Bailey HD, Fritschi L, Infante-Rivard C, Glass DC, Miligi L, Dockerty JD, Lightfoot T,....Milne E, et al.
Authors notes:
International Journal of Cancer 135(9): 2157-2172
Keywords:
Childhood, Leukemia, Meta-analysis, Occupation, Pesticide, Pooled analysis
Abstract:
Maternal occupational pesticide exposure during pregnancy and/or paternal occupational pesticide exposure around conception have been suggested to increase risk of leukemia in the offspring.
With a view to providing insight in this area we pooled individual level data from 13 case-control studies participating in the Childhood Leukemia International Consortium (CLIC).
The risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was 1.01 for maternal exposure during pregnancy and and 1.20 for paternal exposure around conception .
The risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), was 1.94 for maternal exposure during pregnancy and 0.91 for paternal exposure around conception.
Our finding of a significantly increased risk of AML in the offspring with maternal exposure to pesticides during pregnancy is consistent with previous reports.
We also found a slight increase in risk of ALL with paternal exposure around conception which appeared to be more evident in children diagnosed at the age of 5 years or more and those with T cell ALL which raises interesting questions on possible mechanisms.