Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2023, 167(3):246-253 | DOI: 10.5507/bp.2022.004

Risk factors for tumors or leukemia development in the first two years of life

Hana Wiedermannova^{1, 2, #}, Peter Mudry^{2, 3, 4}, Jan Pavlicek^{5, 6}, Hana Tomaskova⁷, Andrea Hladikova⁸, Hana Palova⁹, Petra Vesela⁹, Ondrej Slaby^{9, 10}, Jaroslav Sterba^{2, 3, 4}

¹ Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

² Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

³ Department of Pediatric Oncology, University Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

⁴ ICRC, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

⁵ Department of Pediatrics and Prenatal Cardiology, University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

⁶ Biomedical Research Center, University Hospital Hradec Kralove, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

⁷ Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

⁸ Department of Medical Genetics, University Hospital of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

⁹ CEITEC - Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

¹⁰ Department of Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of neoplastic diseases and associated risk factors in the early stages of life.

Methods: Data were retrospectively assessed in 730,000 live births between 2000 and 2019. The occurrence of tumors was monitored in the neonatal, infant (1-12 months), and toddler (13-24 months) periods. Risk factors were divided into demographic, internal, and environmental factors. The control group consisted of subjects in the same age category without oncological diseases.

Results: A total of 452 neoplastic diseases were diagnosed in the study sample. In total, 24% (110/452) manifested during the neonatal period, 45% (203/452) in infants, and 31% (139/452) at the age of 13-24 months. Any genetic disease (OR 26.68; 95% CI 7.64-93.12) and medications used by the mother (OR 3.07; 95% CI 1.32-7.15) were identified as risk factors. Without adjustment for all factors, asphyxia in the first minute, a younger age of the mother, lower pregnancy, and the presence of a congenital defect manifested themselves as risk factors.

Conclusions: The highest risk factors for the development of early childhood tumors were identified as with medications used by the mother before or during pregnancy and genetic diseases.

Keywords: neoplastic disease, epidemiology, risk factors, early-aged period

Received: October 15, 2021; Revised: January 23, 2022; Accepted: January 25, 2022; Prepublished online: February 11, 2022; Published: September 21, 2023  Show citation