Maternal cancer and congenital anomalies in children - a Danish nationwide cohort study

Several studies on pregnancy-associated cancers have suggested an association with congenital anomalies in offspring. Previous studies have included maternal cancers diagnosed up to 2 years after pregnancy; however, long latency periods of some cancers mean that cancers diagnosed many years postpart...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-03, Vol.12 (3), p.e0173355-e0173355
Main Authors: Momen, Natalie C, Ernst, Andreas, Arendt, Linn Håkonsen, Olsen, Jørn, Li, Jiong, Gissler, Mika, Rasmussen, Finn, Ramlau-Hansen, Cecilia Høst
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age
Biology and Life Sciences
Birth
Birth defects
Cancer
Cancer and Oncology
Cancer och onkologi
Child
Children
Clinical Medicine
Cohort analysis
Cohort Studies
Complications and side effects
Confidence intervals
Congenital Abnormalities - epidemiology
Congenital Abnormalities - etiology
Congenital anomalies
Congenital defects
Denmark - epidemiology
Emigration
Environmental conditions
Epidemiology
Female
Gynecology
Health risk assessment
Hospitals
Humans
Hyperthermia
Klinisk medicin
Latency
Leukemia
Lymphoma
Male
Malnutrition
Medical and Health Sciences
Medical diagnosis
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Medicine and Health Sciences
Metabolism
Middle Aged
Mothers
Musculoskeletal system
Neoplasms - complications
Neurosciences
Offspring
People and Places
Population studies
Postpartum
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
Proportional Hazards Models
Public health
Registries
Risk
Risk factors
Statistical analysis
Stillbirth
Studies
Young Adult
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Summary:Several studies on pregnancy-associated cancers have suggested an association with congenital anomalies in offspring. Previous studies have included maternal cancers diagnosed up to 2 years after pregnancy; however, long latency periods of some cancers mean that cancers diagnosed many years postpartum might have been present during pregnancy in a preclinical state. This paper considers the association between maternal cancers diagnosed from 2 years prior to pregnancy until the mother reaches 50 years of age, and congenital anomalies, as diagnosed at birth or within the first year of life. The current population-based study looks at associations of cancers in mothers with congenital anomalies in their children. Children were followed up from birth to diagnosis of a congenital anomaly, death, emigration or end of follow-up (whichever occurred first). A total of 56,016 children (2.6%) were considered exposed to a maternal cancer of any type; and they had a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.04 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.00, 1.09) compared with unexposed children. The greatest HR was seen among children whose mothers had been diagnosed with cancers before or during pregnancy (HR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.75). Similar results were seen when paternal cancers were used as a 'negative control'. Statistically significant associations were seen for some specific congenital anomalies of organ systems (congenital anomalies of the musculoskeletal system [HR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.25]) and for some specific types of maternal cancer (leukaemia [HR: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.61], The results of the main analyses suggest a small increase in risk of congenital anomalies in offspring of mothers diagnosed with cancer from 2 years before pregnancy, until the mother reaches 50 years of age; with the greatest increase seen for exposure in the pre-pregnancy and pregnancy period. These results may reflect shared causes for some cancers and some congenital anomalies. The similar results seen for paternal cancers indicate that the cause may be genetic or related to the families' social and environmental conditions.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0173355