Maternal Exposure to Anticancer Drugs May Increase Risk for Pediatric Leukemia

Maternal occupational exposure to anticancer medications may raise the risk of pediatric leukemia in children older than 1 year, according to research published in Blood. No such relationship, however, was noted with brain cancers.

Although the underlying etiology of pediatric leukemia is not well established, previous research has suggested that exposure to particular materials, including pesticides and air pollution, may increase the risk of developing the disease. It is, however, unclear the degree to which maternal exposure to any materials can increase a child’s risk of developing leukemia or brain cancer.

To date, no study has established this link, including among women who work in an oncological setting and who may consequently be exposed to hazardous medicines through their occupations. For this prospective cohort study, researchers aimed to determine whether maternal exposure to medical agents is linked with pediatric cancer in children younger than 3 years.

Overall, data from 93,207 children were included in this analysis. In this cohort, 51.2% of patients were male sex, the average maternal age was 31.8 years, and 1.4%, 2.3%, and 1.1% of mothers were exposed to anticancer drugs, ionizing radiation, and anesthetics, respectively, during pregnancy. All data were obtained from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. 

Analysis showed that exposure to anticancer drugs was linked with an increased risk of pediatric leukemia in offspring (adjusted relative risk, 7.99; 95% CI, 1.98-32.3), although no link was found between exposure to these materials and brain cancer. No link was found between paternal exposure to these materials and leukemia or brain cancer.

“Although this association needs to be assessed in other cohort studies, the present results suggest a need for effective protection to reduce maternal exposure to anticancer drugs not only for themselves but also for their offspring,” the authors wrote in their report.

This article originally appeared on Hematology Advisor