Neuroblastoma is the most common cancer in infants worldwide but little is known about its etiology.
We used data from a large case-control study… to investigate if there was any relation between day care attendance, childhood infections, allergies and neuroblastoma.
Our results suggested decreased risks associated with day care attendance… [and] childhood infectious diseases (chickenpox, mumps, red and German measles)…
Neuroblastoma… is the third most common cancer in children and the most common tumor in infants.
Little is known about the etiology of neuroblastoma and the relatively young age at onset has led researchers to investigate parental factors before conception or during gestation. These factors have included occupation, smoking and alcohol consumption, medication use during pregnancy, pregnancy history, and birth characteristics. Associations between these factors and neuroblastoma risk have been inconsistent.
By contributing to the normal maturation of the immune system and the establishment of immunocompetence, early common infections or factors that favor infections in early childhood would protect the child against leukemia, while relative isolation would make the child more vulnerable.
In fact, several studies observed that the risk of childhood leukemia might be reduced by day care attendance, breast-feeding, early common infections, or population mixing.
We found an inverse association between any selected childhood infections (chickenpox, mumps, German measles [rubella], and red measles [measles]) and neuroblastoma.
The association was stronger for children who had two or more infectious diseases…
Our results suggest that day care attendance, selected childhood infections, and certain allergic disorders were associated with a reduced risk of neuroblastoma…
Day care and breastfeeding together further reduced the risk of neuroblastoma.