Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children and adolescents. Little is known about what causes
Review of previously published studies 2019showed that influenza, rubella, and chickenpox during pregnancy are associated with a higher risk of childhood leukemia. But it turned out that some of these studies were biased.
To clarify the situation, scientists from Denmark and Sweden conducted a long-term study of more than 2.2 million children to find the link between childhood leukemia and maternal infection during pregnancy.
Special attention was paid to where the activemost spread pathogens in the body. It turned out that infections of the lungs and digestive system increase the risk of leukemia by 35%, and urinary and genital tract infections by 142% and 65%, respectively. These results were in line with a previous Swedish study.
At the same time, scientists did not find any connection between maternal infections and other childhood cancers, such as brain tumors or lymphoma.
Despite the large selection and high qualitydata, scientists recognize the shortcomings of the study. For example, the fact that the data for analysis comes from hospital records. And, therefore, milder or undiagnosed infections may not have come to the attention of scientists. Despite these limitations, the study helped them learn more about the cause of childhood leukemia. The results are published in JAMA Network Open.
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Cover photo: by José Iván B. V, copyright by PeterPunk, Fotolia, CC 2.0