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

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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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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Drs. Maria Blettner and Hiltrud Merzenich for qualified discussion of the manuscript. We also gratefully acknowledge Dr. Jörg Michaelis for his work during the conducting of the original study and his help in finalizing the manuscript.

Funding sources

The study was funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nuclear Safety, and Nature Protection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. German Childhood Cancer Registry, 55101, Mainz, Germany

    Peter Kaatsch

  2. Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany

    Ulrike Scheidemann-Wesp

  3. Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Joachim Schüz

Authors
  1. Peter Kaatsch
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  2. Ulrike Scheidemann-Wesp
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  3. Joachim Schüz
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Correspondence to Peter Kaatsch.

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Kaatsch, P., Scheidemann-Wesp, U. & Schüz, J. Maternal use of antibiotics and cancer in the offspring: results of a case–control study in Germany. Cancer Causes Control 21, 1335–1345 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9561-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9561-2

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