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Background: Infant leukaemia is likely initiated in utero.Methods: We examined whether analgesic use during pregnancy was associated with risk by completing telephone interviews of the mothers of 441 infant leukaemia cases and 323 frequency-matched controls, using unconditional logistic regression.Results: With the exception of a reduced risk for infant acute myeloid leukaemias with non-aspirin non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) use early in pregnancy (odds ratios=0.60; confidence intervals: 0.37-0.97), no statistically significant associations were observed for aspirin, non-aspirin NSAIDs, or acetaminophen use in early pregnancy or after knowledge of pregnancy.Conclusion: Overall, analgesic use during pregnancy was not significantly associated with the risk of infant leukaemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prenatal supplementation has been inversely associated with childhood, but not with infant, leukaemia.Methods: Mothers of 443 cases of infant leukaemia diagnosed during 1996-2006 and 324 frequency-matched controls completed interviews. Associations were evaluated by unconditional logistic regression.Results: We observed no associations between prenatal vitamin (odds ratio (OR)=0.79, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.44-1.42) or iron supplementation (OR=1.07, 95% CI: 0.75-1.52) and infant leukaemia after adjustment for race/ethnicity and income. Similar results were observed for leukaemia subtypes analysed separately.Conclusion: The observed null associations may be attributable to high supplementation rates and/or national fortification programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with Down syndrome (DS) are highly susceptible to acute leukaemia. Given the potential role of infections in the aetiology of leukaemia in children without DS, we investigated whether there was an association between early-life infections and acute leukaemia in children with DS. Maternal infections during pregnancy were also examined. We enrolled 158 incident cases of acute leukaemia in children with DS (97 acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and 61 acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)) diagnosed at Children's Oncology Group institutions between 1997 and 2002. DS controls (N=173) were selected from the cases' primary care clinics and frequency matched on age at leukaemia diagnosis. Data were collected on demographics, child's medical history, mother's medical history, and other factors by maternal interview. Analyses were conducted using unconditional logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders. A significant negative association was observed between acute leukaemia and any infection in the first 2 years of life (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=0.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.33-0.92); OR=0.53, 95% CI (0.29-0.97); and OR=0.59, 95% CI (0.28-1.25) for acute leukaemia combined, ALL, and AML respectively). The association between acute leukaemia and maternal infections during pregnancy was in the same direction but not significant. This study offers support for the hypothesis that early-life infections may play a protective role in the aetiology of acute leukaemia in children with DS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]