The association between sex and most childhood cancers is not mediated by birthweight.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Male sex is associated with an increased risk of childhood cancer as is high birthweight. Given that sex determination precedes birthweight we conducted a mediation analysis to estimate the direct effect of sex in association with childhood cancer tumor type with birthweight as the mediator.

Methods

Cases (n = 12,632) and controls (n = 64,439) (ages 0-14 years) were identified from population-based cancer and birth registries in Minnesota, New York, and Washington states (1970-2014). An inverse odds weighting (IOW) mediation analysis was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) as the measure of association between sex and cancer.

Results

A significant indirect effect was observed for sex and lymphoid leukemia, mediated by bir

SUBMITTER: Williams LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6289597 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature