| A growing body of evidence suggests that perinatal factors may increase the risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), the most common hematological malignancy in children. I propose to conduct a matched case-control study to investigate the relationship of ALL to 3 perinatal interventions: maternal oxygen therapy, neonatal oxygen therapy, and neonatal phototherapy for jaundice. Children with histologically-confirmed ALL diagnosed before age 10 and born in one of the 13 largest hospitals in Michigan from 1985-2002 (n = 200) will be ascertained in the Michigan Cancer Registry. In Phase I, records of ALL cases will be linked by the Michigan Department of Community Health to their birth certificates and to hospital discharge abstracts from the Michigan Inpatient Database. Phase II of this study expands the search for perinatal exposure information by going to hospitals of birth and care of cases and controls, and reviewing maternal and neonatal hospital and NICU medical records. The proposed study would be the first case-control study of this topic in the US, and will provide a more robust estimate of the association of perinatal oxygen and phototherapy use to ALL risk than is available now. |
