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Residential mobility and the risk of childhood leukemia

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Abstract

Purpose

An infective origin of childhood leukemia has been postulated, with leukemia developing as a rare response to an infection. Population mixing can result in increased contacts between infected and susceptible individuals and may increase the risk of leukemia. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between residential mobility as an indicator of population mixing at individual level and the risk of leukemia in children (<15 years).

Methods

We conducted a population-based case–control study using Finnish register data. Cases (n = 1,093) were all children diagnosed with leukemia (M9800–M9948 in ICD-O-3) at <15 years of age in Finland in 1990–2011. We chose randomly three controls per case (n = 3,279), free of cancer and alive in the end of the index year (diagnosis of the case). Controls were matched by sex and age. A comprehensive history of residential mobility was constructed from the population registry including overall migration, moving to a larger municipality (more inhabitants), and moving to a municipality with low, intermediate, or high migration intensity. The association between residential mobility and the risk of childhood leukemia was evaluated using conditional logistic regression.

Results

We did not observe consistently increased or decreased risks of childhood leukemia associated with different migration patterns. Overall, residential mobility showed odds ratios nonsignificantly below unity, and no elevated risks were found.

Conclusion

Our results do not indicate that higher residential mobility or moving to municipalities with more inhabitants is associated with risk of childhood leukemia.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Kim Vettenranta, MD (Helsinki University Hospital), Päivi Lähteenmäki, MD (Turku University Hospital), Merja Möttönen, MD (Oulu University Hospital), and Jouni Pesola, MD (Kuopio University Hospital) for help in collecting the data on genetic aberrations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014, Tampere, Finland

    Laura Järvelä, Jani Raitanen & Anssi Auvinen

  2. UKK Institute for Health Promotion, Tampere, Finland

    Jani Raitanen

  3. STUK – Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, Finland

    Anssi Auvinen

  4. Tampere Center for Child Health Research, University of Tampere Medical School and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland

    Sini Erme, Olli Lohi & Anssi Auvinen

Authors
  1. Laura Järvelä
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  2. Jani Raitanen
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  3. Sini Erme
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  4. Olli Lohi
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  5. Anssi Auvinen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anssi Auvinen.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 5.

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Järvelä, L., Raitanen, J., Erme, S. et al. Residential mobility and the risk of childhood leukemia. Cancer Causes Control 27, 433–443 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-016-0720-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-016-0720-y

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