Farm and animal exposures and pediatric brain tumors: results from the United States West Coast Childhood Brain Tumor Study.
Abstract: Nineteen counties from San Francisco and Los Angeles, California and Seattle, Washington were the United States sites for a large population-based case-control study of childhood brain tumors (CBTs), sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. CBT patients who were 1 year and were first on a farm when they were < 6 months of age also had increased risk for CBTs (OR = 3.9, 95% CI = 1.2-13). A somewhat increased risk for CBTs was found for children of mothers who ever had worked on livestock farms compared with mothers who never had worked on a farm (OR = 7.4, 95% CI = 0.86-64, based on five case mothers and one control mother who worked on livestock farms during the 5 years preceding the birth of the index child). The associations are consistent with those of two previous studies in Norway (P. Kristensen et al., Int. J. Cancer, 65: 39-50, 1996) and the United States and Canada (G. R. Bunin et al., Cancer Epidemiol. Biomark. Prev., 3: 197-204, 1994) that investigated the role of farm-related exposures in the etiology of CBTs.
Publication Date: 1998-09-30 PubMed ID: 9752988
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- Journal Article
- Research Support
- Non-U.S. Gov't
- Research Support
- U.S. Gov't
- P.H.S.
Summary
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The research article discusses a large-scale study conducted in the US, which aimed to investigate the connection between childhood brain tumors (CBT) and exposure to farm life and animals. The study identifies a potential increase in risk for CBTs associated with maternal exposure to certain farm animals during pregnancy, and prolonged early-age farm-life exposure for children.
Research Context
- The research was a large-scale population-based case-control study that spanned across 19 counties in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
- The study subjects were childhood brain tumor patients below 20 years of age, diagnosed between 1984 and 1991, identified through each region’s cancer registry.
- 801 control subjects were selected using random dialing and were frequency-matched to the 540 CBT patients, maintaining a ratio of either one patient to two controls or one to one, depending on the city.
Data Collection
- Data was collected through in-person interviews with the subjects’ mothers.
- The interviews were designed to shed light on any potential association between CBT risk and life on a farm, as well as exposure to specific farm animals such as dairy cattle, beef cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, poultry, and horses, alongside some cat and non-farm horse exposure events.
Research Findings
- The study identified elevated risks for CBT associated with mothers exposed to pigs and horses on a farm during their pregnancy.
- Kids diagnosed with primitive neuroectodermal tumors (a neurological tumor that affects the nervous system) showed elevated risks for CBTs if they personally, or their mother during prenatal phase, were exposed to pigs and poultry.
- No other consistent connection between the CBTs and child or maternal exposure to other animals was observed.
- Children who were on a farm for more than a year, and first exposed to farm life when they were below 6 months of age, also had an increased risk for CBTs.
- There was a somewhat increased risk for CBTs observed in children whose mothers had ever worked on livestock farms compared to mothers who had never worked on a farm.
Comparison with Previous Studies
- The article mentions that their findings align with those of two previous studies conducted in Norway and the US/Canada, consolidating a potential pattern between farm life/animal exposure and the risk of occurrence of CBTs.
Cite This Article
APA
Holly EA, Bracci PM, Mueller BA, Preston-Martin S.
(1998).
Farm and animal exposures and pediatric brain tumors: results from the United States West Coast Childhood Brain Tumor Study.
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 7(9), 797-802.
Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, 94109, USA.
MeSH Terms
- Adolescent
- Adult
- Agriculture
- Animals
- Animals, Domestic
- Astrocytes / pathology
- Brain Neoplasms / epidemiology
- Brain Neoplasms / etiology
- Cats
- Cattle
- Child
- Child, Preschool
- Environmental Exposure
- Female
- Horses
- Humans
- Infant
- Male
- Neuroectodermal Tumors, Primitive / etiology
- Occupational Exposure
- Pregnancy
- Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
- United States / epidemiology
Grant Funding
- CA17054 / NCI NIH HHS
- CA47082 / NCI NIH HHS
- N01-CN-65107 / NCI NIH HHS
Citations
This article has been cited 13 times.- Petit P, Gandon G, Chabardès S, Bonneterre V. Agricultural activities and risk of central nervous system tumors among French farm managers: Results from the TRACTOR project. Int J Cancer 2022 Nov 15;151(10):1737-1749.
- Rossides M, Kampitsi CE, Talbäck M, Wiebert P, Feychting M, Tettamanti G. Childhood cancer risk in offspring of parents occupationally exposed to dusts: A register-based nested case-control study from Sweden of 5 decades. Cancer 2022 Apr 15;128(8):1637-1648.
- Feulefack J, Khan A, Forastiere F, Sergi CM. Parental Pesticide Exposure and Childhood Brain Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Confirming the IARC/WHO Monographs on Some Organophosphate Insecticides and Herbicides. Children (Basel) 2021 Nov 28;8(12).
- Hall C, Hansen J, von Ehrenstein OS, He D, Olsen J, Ritz B, Heck JE. Occupational livestock or animal dust exposure and offspring cancer risk in Denmark, 1968-2016. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2020 Jul;93(5):659-668.
- Patel DM, Jones RR, Booth BJ, Olsson AC, Kromhout H, Straif K, Vermeulen R, Tikellis G, Paltiel O, Golding J, Northstone K, Stoltenberg C, Håberg SE, Schüz J, Friesen MC, Ponsonby AL, Lemeshow S, Linet MS, Magnus P, Olsen J, Olsen SF, Dwyer T, Stayner LT, Ward MH. Parental occupational exposure to pesticides, animals and organic dust and risk of childhood leukemia and central nervous system tumors: Findings from the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C). Int J Cancer 2020 Feb 15;146(4):943-952.
- Booth BJ, Jones RR, Turyk ME, Freels S, Patel DM, Stayner LT, Ward MH. Livestock and poultry density and childhood cancer incidence in nine states in the USA. Environ Res 2017 Nov;159:444-451.
- Booth BJ, Ward MH, Turyk ME, Stayner LT. Agricultural crop density and risk of childhood cancer in the midwestern United States: an ecologic study. Environ Health 2015 Oct 15;14:82.
- Shim YK, Mlynarek SP, van Wijngaarden E. Parental exposure to pesticides and childhood brain cancer: U.S. Atlantic coast childhood brain cancer study. Environ Health Perspect 2009 Jun;117(6):1002-6.
- Carozza SE, Li B, Elgethun K, Whitworth R. Risk of childhood cancers associated with residence in agriculturally intense areas in the United States. Environ Health Perspect 2008 Apr;116(4):559-65.
- Searles Nielsen S, Mueller BA, De Roos AJ, Viernes HM, Farin FM, Checkoway H. Risk of brain tumors in children and susceptibility to organophosphorus insecticides: the potential role of paraoxonase (PON1). Environ Health Perspect 2005 Jul;113(7):909-13.
- Efird JT, Holly EA, Cordier S, Mueller BA, Lubin F, Filippini G, Peris-Bonet R, McCredie M, Arslan A, Bracci P, Preston-Martin S. Beauty product-related exposures and childhood brain tumors in seven countries: results from the SEARCH International Brain Tumor Study. J Neurooncol 2005 Apr;72(2):133-47.
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- Onyije FM, Dolatkhah R, Olsson A, Bouaoun L, Deltour I, Erdmann F, Bonaventure A, Scheurer ME, Clavel J, Schüz J. Risk factors for childhood brain tumours: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies from 1976 to 2022. Cancer Epidemiol 2024 Feb;88:102510.
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