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Cancer Causes & Control
Published in: Cancer Causes & Control 8/2010

01-08-2010 | Original paper

Maternal use of antibiotics and cancer in the offspring: results of a case–control study in Germany

Authors: Peter Kaatsch, Ulrike Scheidemann-Wesp, Joachim Schüz

Published in: Cancer Causes & Control | Issue 8/2010

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Abstract

Objective

As previous results were inconsistent, we assessed the association between maternal use of antibiotics during pregnancy or 3 months before conception and childhood cancer in the offspring in a large case–control study in Germany.

Methods

This population-based study on potential risk factors for childhood cancer was conducted by the German Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR) and included a total of 1,867 registered cancer cases aged 0–14, diagnosed between October 1992 and September 1994. A total of 2,057 controls were randomly drawn from population registries, matched by age, gender, and region. Conditional logistic regression models for frequency-matched datasets were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).

Results

Positive statistically significant associations with self-reported maternal antibiotic use were observed for acute lymphoid leukemia (based on 59 mothers exposed to antibiotics, OR = 1.47; 95% CI: 1.06–2.04), acute myeloid leukemia (18 exposed, OR = 3.21; 95% CI: 1.83–5.62), and Burkitt lymphoma (three exposed, OR = 5.89; 95% CI: 1.47–23.69), but not other cancer types.

Conclusions

The results provide some support for the hypothesis that maternal use of antibiotics increases the risk of cancer in the offspring. Although recall bias is a concern, it is unlikely that this fully explains the observed effect. Further, the observed associations might be related to the underlying infections.
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Metadata
Title
Maternal use of antibiotics and cancer in the offspring: results of a case–control study in Germany
Authors
Peter Kaatsch
Ulrike Scheidemann-Wesp
Joachim Schüz
Publication date
01-08-2010
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Cancer Causes & Control / Issue 8/2010
Print ISSN: 0957-5243
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7225
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9561-2

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