Evidence of spatial clustering of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia cases in Greater Mexico City: report from the Mexican Inter-Institutional Group for the identification of the causes of childhood leukemia.

Background: A heterogeneous geographic distribution of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cases has been described, possibly, related to the presence of different environmental factors. The aim of the present study was to explore the geographical distribution of childhood ALL cases in Greater Mexico City (GMC).
Methods: A population-based case-control study was conducted. Children <18 years old, newly diagnosed with ALL and residents of GMC were included. Controls were patients without leukemia recruited from second-level public hospitals, frequency-matched by sex, age, and health institution with the cases. The residence address where the patients lived during the last year before diagnosis (cases) or the interview (controls) was used for geolocation. Kulldorff's spatial scan statistic was used to detect spatial clusters (SCs). Relative risks (RR), associated p-value and number of cases included for each cluster were obtained.
Results: A total of 1054 cases with ALL were analyzed. Of these, 408 (38.7%) were distributed across eight SCs detected. A relative risk of 1.61 (p<0.0001) was observed for the main cluster. Similar results were noted for the remaining seven ones. Additionally, a proximity between SCs, electrical installations and petrochemical facilities was observed.
Conclusions: The identification of SCs in certain regions of GMC suggest the possible role of environmental factors in the etiology of childhood ALL.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer IO declared a shared affiliation with the author RE-E to the handling editor at the time of review.
(Copyright © 2024 Duarte-Rodríguez, Flores-Lujano, McNally, Pérez-Saldivar, Jiménez-Hernández, Martín-Trejo, Espinoza-Hernández, Medina-Sanson, Paredes-Aguilera, Merino-Pasaye, Velázquez-Aviña, Torres-Nava, Espinosa-Elizondo, Amador-Sánchez, Dosta-Herrera, Mondragón-García, González-Ulibarri, Martínez-Silva, Espinoza-Anrubio, Paz-Bribiesca, Salcedo-Lozada, Landa-García, Ramírez-Colorado, Hernández-Mora, Santamaría-Ascencio, López-Loyola, Godoy-Esquivel, García-López, Anguiano-Ávalos, Mora-Rico, Castañeda-Echevarría, Rodríguez-Jiménez, Cibrian-Cruz, Solís-Labastida, Cárdenas-Cardos, López-Santiago, Flores-Villegas, Peñaloza-González, González-Ávila, Sánchez-Ruiz, Rivera-Luna, Rodríguez-Villalobos, Hernández-Pérez, Olvera-Durán, García-Cortés, Mata-Rocha, Sepúlveda-Robles, Bekker-Méndez, Jiménez-Morales, Meléndez-Zajgla, Rosas-Vargas, Vega, Núñez-Enríquez and Mejía-Aranguré.)