Abstract
Objectives. To investigate the association between the maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and early age leukemia (EAL) in offspring. Methods. Datasets were analyzed from a case-control study carried out in Brazil during 1999–2007. Data were obtained by maternal interviews using a standardized questionnaire. The present study included 675 children (193 acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), 59 acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and 423 controls). Unconditional logistic regression was performed, and adjusted odds ratios (adj. OR) on the association between alcohol consumption and EAL were ascertained. Results. Alcohol consumption was reported by 43% of ALL and 39% of AML case mothers and 35.5% of controls'. Beer consumption before and during pregnancy was associated with ALL in crude analysis (OR = 1.54, 95% CI, 1.08–2.19), although in adjusted analysis no statistical significance was found. For weekly intake of ≤1 glass (adj. OR = 1.30, 95% CI, 0.71–2.36) and ≥1 glass/week (adj. OR = 1.47, 95% CI, 0.88–2.46) a potential dose-response was observed (P trend < 0.03). Conclusion. This study failed to support the hypothesis of an increased risk of EAL associated with maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy, neither with the interaction with tobacco nor with alcohol consumption.
Highlights
Acute leukemia in early childhood is seldom, mainly those cases diagnosed within the first year of life—infant leukemia (IL) [1, 2]
Cases and controls were assessed throughout a multicenter study “Multi-Institutional Study of Infant Leukemia: Contribution of Immunomolecular Markers in Distinguishing Different Etiopathogenic Factors” that focuses on the investigation of early age leukemia (EAL)
There were 116 IL cases (46.0%), a higher proportion of whites observed among all EAL cases (67.5%) than controls (36.2%), P < 0.01
Summary
Acute leukemia in early childhood is seldom, mainly those cases diagnosed within the first year of life—infant leukemia (IL) [1, 2]. The etiology of the majority hematopoietic malignancies in children remains largely unknown, Down syndrome [6, 7] and exposure to ionizing radiation [8] and certain chemotherapeutic agents [9, 10] are associated with increased risk of childhood acute leukemia. Previous researches demonstrated that for some childhood leukemia types the causality factors are likely to be multiple and associated with leukemia subtype-specific, combining environmental exposures and genetic susceptibility modulation risk [11, 12]. Several studies conducted in the last decade demonstrated a positive association between childhood leukemia and maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy [13,14,15,16,17] leading to the premises that maternal alcohol drinking during pregnancy could cause DNA damage during the preconceptions in gametes cells or during pregnancy in fetal cells. Additional epidemiological observations confirmed the previous studies, but findings
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