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BACKGROUND: Childhood cancer is a rare but leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Established risk factors, accounting for <10% of incidence, have been identified primarily from case-control studies. However, recall, selection and other potential biases impact interpretations particularly, for modest associations. A consortium of pregnancy and birth cohorts (I4C) was established to utilise prospective, pre-diagnostic exposure assessments and biological samples. METHODS: Eligibility criteria, follow-up methods and identification of paediatric cancer cases are described for cohorts currently participating or planning future participation. Also described are exposure assessments, harmonisation methods, biological samples potentially available for I4C research, the role of the I4C data and biospecimen coordinating centres and statistical approaches used in the pooled analyses. RESULTS: Currently, six cohorts recruited over six decades (1950s-2000s) contribute data on 388 120 mother-child pairs. Nine new cohorts from seven countries are anticipated to contribute data on 627 500 additional projected mother-child pairs within 5 years. Harmonised data currently includes over 20 "core" variables, with notable variability in mother/child characteristics within and across cohorts, reflecting in part, secular changes in pregnancy and birth characteristics over the decades. CONCLUSIONS: The I4C is the first cohort consortium to have published findings on paediatric cancer using harmonised variables across six pregnancy/birth cohorts. Projected increases in sample size, expanding sources of exposure data (eg, linkages to environmental and administrative databases), incorporation of biological measures to clarify exposures and underlying molecular mechanisms and forthcoming joint efforts to complement case-control studies offer the potential for breakthroughs in paediatric cancer aetiologic research.

BACKGROUND: Evidence relating childhood cancer to high birthweight is derived primarily from registry and case-control studies. We aimed to investigate this association, exploring the potential modifying roles of age at diagnosis and maternal anthropometrics, using prospectively collected data from the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium. METHODS: We pooled data on infant and parental characteristics and cancer incidence from six geographically and temporally diverse member cohorts [the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (UK), the Collaborative Perinatal Project (USA), the Danish National Birth Cohort (Denmark), the Jerusalem Perinatal Study (Israel), the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (Norway), and the Tasmanian Infant Health Survey (Australia)]. Birthweight metrics included a continuous measure, deciles, and categories (≥ 4.0 vs. < 4.0 kilogram). Childhood cancer (377 cases diagnosed prior to age 15 years) risk was analysed by type (all sites, leukaemia, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and non-leukaemia) and age at diagnosis. We estimated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) from Cox proportional hazards models stratified by cohort. RESULTS: A linear relationship was noted for each kilogram increment in birthweight adjusted for gender and gestational age for all cancers [HR = 1.26; 95% CI 1.02, 1.54]. Similar trends were observed for leukaemia. There were no significant interactions with maternal pre-pregnancy overweight or pregnancy weight gain. Birthweight ≥ 4.0 kg was associated with non-leukaemia cancer among children diagnosed at age ≥ 3 years [HR = 1.62; 95% CI 1.06, 2.46], but not at younger ages [HR = 0.7; 95% CI 0.45, 1.24, P for difference = 0.02]. CONCLUSION: Childhood cancer incidence rises with increasing birthweight. In older children, cancers other than leukaemia are particularly related to high birthweight. Maternal adiposity, currently widespread, was not demonstrated to substantially modify these

Aim: To evaluate a telephone nurse triage model in terms of appropriateness of referrals to the appropriate level of care, patient's compliance with given advice and costs. Background: A key concern in each telephonic consultation is to evaluate if appropriate. Method: An evaluative design in primary health care with consecutive patients (N = 362) calling telephone nurse triage between November 2002 and February 2003. Results: The advice was considered adequate in 325 (97.6%) cases. The patients' compliance with self-care was 81.3%, to primary health care 91.1% and to Accident and Emergency department 100%. The nurses referred self-care cases (64.7%) and Accident and Emergency cases (29.6%) from a less adequate to an appropriate level of care. The cost saving per call leading to a recommendation of self-care was €70.3, to primary health care €24.3 and to Accident and Emergency department €22.2. Conclusions The telephone nurse triage model showed adequate guidance for the patients concerning level of care and released resources for the benefit of both patients and the health care system. © 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Background: Coeliac patients improve vastly when started on a.-gluten-free diet. After 10 years, however, women show a lower level of subjective health than men do. We investigated whether this could be explained by differences in the perceived disease burden. Methods: We studied 68 coeliac patients (34 women) (mean age 57 years, range 32-75) and matched type-2 diabetes controls treated for a mean of 10 years. They were examined by a 9-item Burden of Illness (BI) protocol comprising perceived worries, restriction., and subjective outcome. The subjective health was assessed with the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire. Results: The importance of complying with the diet was ranked similarly high by male and female coeliac patients, However, women were less satisfied with the outcome at 10 years than men were, and expressed more concern about the impact on socializing with friends and having to abstain from important things in life. None of these aspects distinguished male and female diabetic patients, Coeliac women showed a higher BI sum score than men did, and this was inversely related to their SF-36 General health, Vitality and Mental Health scores. Conclusions: Coeliac women adhering to the treatment regimen for several years perceive the disease burden to be worse than men do. In the light of similar differences in their quality of life, inquiry is warranted into the way coeliac men and women are coping with the disorder.

A recent experimental study [J.-E. Rubensson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 947 (1999)] measured a significant fluorescence yield of the He(2lnl') photoexcited resonances, showing major qualitative differences from nonrelativistic predictions. We present a, Addresses: Gorczyca TW, Western Michigan Univ, Dept Phys, Kalamazoo, MI 49008 USA. Western Michigan Univ, Dept Phys, Kalamazoo, MI 49008 USA. Univ Uppsala, Dept Phys, S-75121 Uppsala, Sweden. Jilin Univ, Inst Atom & Mol Phys, Changchun 130023, Peoples R C

A principal design of a wave-front-dividing interferometer for Fourier transform spectroscopy is proposed. The interference pattern for far-field Fraunhofer diffraction is calculated by means of the complex amplitude of the electric held. Relationships fo, Addresses: Wang M, Uppsala Univ, Dept Phys, Box 530, SE-75121 Uppsala, Sweden. Uppsala Univ, Dept Phys, SE-75121 Uppsala, Sweden. Zhejiang Univ, Dept Opt Engn, Hangzhou 310027, Peoples R China.