Birth weight and risk of childhood solid tumors in Brazil: a record linkage between population-based data sets

• Main Authors: Neimar de Paula Silva, Rejane de Souza Reis, Rafael Garcia Cunha, Julio Fernando Oliveira, Fernanda Cristina da Silva de Lima, Maria Socorro Pombo-de-Oliveira, Marceli Oliveira Santos, Beatriz de Camargo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2017
• Subjects: Salud del niño; neoplasias; peso al nacer; desarrollo fetal; sistema de registros; Brasil; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/b51a22aecb42458f9c6fd020525d33d8

ABSTRACT Objective To analyze the relationship between the development of childhood solid tumors and 1) birth weight and 2) fetal growth, using two Brazilian population-based data sets. Methods A case–cohort study was performed using two population-based data sets, and linkage between the Live Birth Information System (Sistema de Informação sobre Nascidos Vivos, SINASC) and 14 population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) was established. Four controls per case were chosen randomly from the SINASC data set. Tumors were classified as central nervous system (CNS), non-CNS embryonal, and other tumors (“miscellaneous”). Adjustments were made for potential confounders (maternal age, mode of delivery, maternal education, birth order, gestational age, sex, and geographic region). Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed using unconditional logistic regression analysis. Results In a trend analysis, for every 500 g of additional birth weight, the crude OR was 1.12 (CI: 1.00–1.24) and the adjusted OR was 1.02 (CI: 0.90–1.16) for all tumors. For every 1 000 g of additional birth weight, the crude OR was 1.25 (CI: 1.00–1.55) and the adjusted OR was 1.04 (CI: 0.82–1.34) for all tumors. Among children diagnosed after reaching the age of 3 years, in the miscellaneous tumor category, the OR was significantly increased for every additional 500 g and 1 000 g of birth weight. Conclusions The study data suggested that increased birth weight was associated with childhood solid tumor development, especially among children more than 3 years old with “miscellaneous” tumors.