Maternal infection during pregnancy linked with childhood Leukemia among offspring: Study

Maternal genitourinary tract infection during pregnancy was associated with childhood leukemia among offspring, suggests findings from a Danish cohort study published recently in JAMA Netw Open. Maternal infection is common during pregnancy and is an important potential cause of fetal genetic and immunological abnormalities. Maternal infection has been reported to be associated with childhood leukemia in previous case-control or small cohort studies.

The study conducted by Jian-Rong He et al, aimed to evaluate the association of maternal infection during pregnancy with childhood leukemia among offspring in a large study.

They used data from 7 Danish national registries for all live births in Denmark between 1978 and 2015. Swedish registry data for all live births between 1988 and 2014 were used to validate the findings for the Danish cohort. Data were analyzed from December 2019 to December 2021.

he primary outcome was any leukemia; secondary outcomes were acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Children born to mothers with infection during pregnancy had a 35% increased risk of leukemia compared with offspring of mothers without infection. Maternal genital and urinary tract infections were associated with a 142% and 65% increased risk of childhood leukemia. The sibling analysis showed comparable estimates to the whole-cohort analysis. The association patterns for ALL and AML were similar to that for any leukemia.

If confirmed in future studies, their findings may have implications for understanding the etiology and developing preventive measures for childhood leukemia.

Reference:

He J, Yu Y, Fang F, et al. Evaluation of Maternal Infection During Pregnancy and Childhood Leukemia Among Offspring in Denmark. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(2):e230133. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.0133