New research says risk of childhood cancer increases with older birth mothers

From Ozarks First:

New research out of the University of Minnesota finds the risk of childhood cancer increases as the birth mom gets older.

The findings may raise new concerns for women waiting longer to get pregnant.

"My research involves figuring out why kids get cancer," says Logan Spector, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota.

The study published in the journal "Epidemiology" looked at nearly 18,000 children diagnosed with cancer before their 15th birthday.
What it found was that the likelihood of developing the most common childhood cancers increased as the age of the birth mom increased.

"We compared everybody to mothers under 20," says Spector. He helped lead the research team in what he termed one of the largest studies of childhood cancer to date.
"The thing we need to keep in mind is the absolute risk of cancer is very low... on the order of 100 cases per million kids."

"The old definition is 35 and above... but it's 40, that's when the real risk starts to kick in," notes Dr. David Lynch-Salamon of Minnesota Perinatal Physicians group in St. Paul.

Lynch-Salamon handles many high risk pregnancies, including those of older women. "There is certainly a statistical increase but the increase is so slight, the baseline risk so low, this is not something I would bring up."

It is already well documented that the incidence of Down Syndrome increases with the age of a birth mom, particularly after 35.

So too are other potential complications.
The researchers say with more women waiting to have babies later in life, this study takes on added importance.
Consider in 1970 18-percent of babies were born to mothers older than 30. Today, that number is 37-percent.

"We're just trying to get a small part, a piece of the puzzle, of why cancer occurs in kids," says Spector.

As for why there's a slight up-tick in cancer in children born to older moms, the university's research team speculated that one reason may be age-related changes in hormonal levels during a pregnancy. Even so, the findings aren't going to change the way things are done at Dr. Lynch-Salamon's practice. "The real question is whether this would dissuade anybody from attempting a pregnancy, I don't think so."

It's important to remember childhood cancers, like leukemia and lymphoma, are extremely rare. Researchers also looked at the age of fathers, but didn't see the same connection.