Cancer in siblings of children with cancer in the Nordic co

The Lancet Vol. 358; pages 711-717, September 1, 2001 Cancer in siblings of children with cancer in the Nordic countries: A population-based cohort study Jeanette Falck Winther, Risto Sankila, John D Boice Jr, Hrafn Tulinius, Andrea Bautz, Lotti Barlow, Eystein Glattre, Froydis Langmark, Torgil R Moller, John Mulvihill, Gudridur H Olafsdottir, Annukka Ritvanen, Jorgen H Olsenet Introduction Relevance: In some inherited childhood cancers there is an increased risk of children and their siblings getting cancer. Hypothesis: By studying the relationship between children with cancer and genetic heredity and by evaluating the influence of recessive cancer causing conditions, the study hoped to determine that children whose siblings have common types of cancer are not at an increased risk of getting cancer themselves Experimental Design Forty two thousand two hundred and seventy-seven siblings, from 5 Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) of 25,605 children with cancer were selected by accessing linkage records and cancer registries of surviving children and adolescents with cancer. Fourteen thousand childhood cancer survivors were compare

With the exception of genetic cancers, what causes most childhood cancers are unknown. The siblings were all younger than 20 years old from 1943 in Denmark, 1953 in Finland and Norway, 1954 in Iceland, and 1958 in Sweden. This study substantiated its findings that it is unlikely there are any undiscovered genes that may cause childhood cancer. They analyzed the relationships between specific childhood cancers and the risks of cancer in a family from a large population for 40 years. With the exception of inherited diseases, childhood cancer survivor"tms children will not develop the disease. The majority of cancer is due to gene changes acquired during a person's lifetime. (NASP 1998; 387-391)My OpinionThe experiment was informative but the findings were not always easy to interpret. (MEDLINE July 1996; 74(1): 152-8) "Childhood cancers have increased by 26 overall, while the incidence of particular cancers has increased still more". The index patient in the family was the child with the earliest diagnosis date of cancer. d with the expected number of cancers among children in the general population. The cancer siblings were compared with the national rates of cancer occurrence by evaluating the influence of specific gene development in children and siblings of children with cancer. Excluded from the study were 56 families with cancer linked genes, adopted and half-siblings. (PRNewswire CHICAGO, May 9, 2003) One in every 330 children in the U. When hereditary cancers are excluded from the study, children are not at risk getting family related cancers.