Birth defects more common in offspring of younger female cancer survivors
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Offspring of women with cancer had higher risk for birth defects compared with offspring of women without cancer.
- Defect risks included eye or ear, heart and circulatory, genitourinary and musculoskeletal.
The offspring of adolescent and young adult women with a history of cancer experienced a higher risk for birth defects, according to study results published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
The findings suggest that this population of adolescent and young adult women should receive appropriate counseling and surveillance when making decisions about pregnancy and prenatal care, researchers concluded.
Rationale and methodology
“Concerns like the health of future children are at the top of mind for many young adults diagnosed with cancer, but they are already so overwhelmed at the time of diagnosis with navigating cancer-related information,” Caitlin C. Murphy, PhD, MPH, associate professor of health promotion and behavioral sciences at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, said in a press release. “Our findings can be used in clinical practice to provide counseling and inform this population of the potential risks and reproductive consequences of cancer, at the time of diagnosis and beyond.”
Murphy and colleagues sought to examine the risk for birth defects in 6,882 offspring among adolescent and young adult women with a history of cancer aged between 15 years and 39 years at diagnosis (28.9% thyroid cancer, 12.5% lymphoma, and 10.7% breast cancer) included in the Texas Cancer Registry. Nearly one-fourth (24%) of women received chemotherapy.
Researchers used log binomial regression models to compare risk for birth defects in offspring through age 1 year from the Texas Birth Defects Registry vs. birth defects among 20,646 offspring of women without a history of cancer.
Findings
Results showed a significantly higher risk for any birth defect among offspring of women with a history of cancer compared with offspring of women without cancer (6% vs. 4.8%; risk ratio [RR] = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.11-1.38).
Further findings also showed higher risk for certain birth defects among offspring of women with a history of cancer, including eye or ear (RR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.03-1.9), heart and circulatory (RR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.09-1.6), genitourinary (RR = 1.38; 95% CI, 1.12-1.69) and musculoskeletal (RR = 1.37; 95% CI, 1.13-1.66).
Researchers reported multiple study limitations, including the inability to identify births or birth defects in offspring of the cohort of young women with a history of cancer who moved away from Texas. In addition, the study included information on birth defects only through 1 year and some congenital anomalies may not manifest until early childhood.
Implications
“Many studies now demonstrate relationships between cancer and birth defects; children with birth defects also have a higher risk for cancer,” Murphy said in the release. “The more we learn about how they are related to each other, the more we can identify opportunities to prevent both.”
References:
- Murphy CC, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2023;doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-23-0743.
- Offspring of teen, young adult women with cancer history more likely to have birth defects (press release). Available at: https://sph.uth.edu/news/story/offspring-of-teen-young-adult-women-with-cancer-history-more-likely-to-have-birth-defects. Published Oct. 6, 2023. Accessed Oct. 25, 2023.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts