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The association between parental smoking and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was investigated in an Australian population-based case-control study that included 388 cases and 868 controls aged <15 years, recruited from 2003 to 2006. Both of the child’s parents provided information about their smoking habits for each year from age 15 years to the child’s birth. Data were analyzed by logistic regression. Maternal smoking was not associated with risk of childhood ALL, but the odds ratio for paternal smoking of ≥15 cigarettes per day around the time of the child’s conception was 1.35 (95% confidence interval: 0.98, 1.86). The associations between parental smoking risk of childhood ALL did not differ substantially by immunophenotypic or cytogenetic subtype. Meta-analyses of paternal smoking, including results from the Australian Study of Causes of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Children and those of previous studies, produced summary odds ratios of 1.15 (95% confidence interval: 1.06, 1.24) for any paternal smoking around the time of the child’s conception and 1.44 (95% confidence interval: 1.24, 1.68) for smoking ≥20 cigarettes per day at that time. Study results suggest that heavier paternal smoking around the time of conception is a risk factor for childhood ALL. Men should be strongly encouraged to cease smoking, particularly when planning to start a family. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cigarette smoke has been linked to adult myeloid leukemia; however, the association between parental smoking and childhood leukemia remains unclear. Parental smoking and the risk of childhood leukemia were examined in the Northern California Childhood Leukemia Study, a case-control study, between 1995 and 2002. The present analysis included 327 acute childhood leukemia cases (281 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 46 acute myeloid leukemia (AML)) and 416 controls matched on age, sex, maternal race, and Hispanic ethnicity. Maternal smoking was not associated with an increased risk of either ALL or AML. Paternal preconception smoking was significantly associated with an increased risk of AML (odds ratio = 3.84, 95% confidence interval: 1.04, 14.17); an increased risk for ALL was suggestive for paternal preconception smoking (odds ratio = 1.32, 95% confidence interval: 0.86, 2.04). Greater risks of ALL were observed compared with the risk associated with paternal preconception smoking alone, when paternal preconception smoking was combined with maternal postnatal smoking (pinteraction = 0.004) or postnatal passive smoking exposure (pinteraction = 0.004). These results strongly suggest that exposure to paternal preconception smoking alone or in combination with postnatal passive smoking may be important in the risk of childhood leukemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]