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Maternal use of household pesticides during pregnancy and risk of neuroblastoma in offspring. A pooled analysis of the ESTELLE and ESCALE French studies (SFCE)

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Abstract

Purpose

Neuroblastoma (NB) is an embryonic tumor that occurs almost exclusively in infancy and early childhood. While considerable evidence suggests that it may be initiated during embryonic development, the etiology of NB is still unknown. The aim of this study was to explore whether there is an association between maternal use of household pesticides during pregnancy and the risk of NB in the offspring.

Methods

We conducted a pooled analysis of two French national-based case–control studies. The mothers of 357 NB cases and 1,783 controls younger than 6 years, frequency-matched by age and gender, responded to a telephone interview that focused on sociodemographic and perinatal characteristics, childhood environment, and life-style. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate pooled odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

Results

After controlling for matching variables, study of origin, and potential confounders, the maternal use of any type of pesticide during pregnancy was associated with NB (OR 1.5 [95% CI 1.2–1.9]). The most commonly used type of pesticides were insecticides and there was a positive association with their use alone (OR 1.4 [95% CI 1.1–1.9]) or with other pesticides (OR 2.0 [95% CI 1.1–3.4]).

Conclusions

Although there is the potential for recall bias due to the study design, our findings add to the evidence of an association between the household use of pesticides and NB. Until a better study design can be found, our findings add yet another reason why to advise pregnant women to limit pesticide exposure during the periconceptional period.

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Abbreviations

ESCALE:

Etude Sur les Cancers et les Leucémies de l’Enfant

ESTELLE:

Etude Sur les Tumeurs Embryonnaires, Leucémies et Lymphomes de l’Enfant

MYCN:

N-myc proto-oncogene

NB:

Neuroblastoma

RNCE:

Registre National des Cancers de L’Enfant

SFCE:

Société Française de lutte contre les Cancers de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent

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Acknowledgments

INSERM, the Ligue National Contre le Cancer (LNCC), the Fondation de France, the Agence Françaises Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé(AFSSAPS), the Agence Française Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Environnement et du Travail (AFSSET), the Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC), the Agence Française Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé(ANSM), the Agence Française Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Environnement et du Travail (ANSES), the association Cent pour sang la vie, the Institut National du Cancer (INCa) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), the Institut National du Cancer (INCa), and Canceropôle Ile de France. Paula Rios PhD scholarship is supported by the Interdisciplinary research program on health crisis and health protection (PRINCEPS). The authors are grateful to: Marie-Hélène Da Silva, Christophe Steffen and Florence Menegaux (INSERM U1018, Environmental Epidemiology of Cancer), Noureddine Balegroune, Sofien Ben Salha and the team of clinical research associates who contributed to the recruitment of the cases; Aurèlie Guyot-Goubin, Laure Faure and the staff of the French National Registry of Childhood Blood Malignancies, who contributed to case detection and verification; Sabine Melèze and Marie-Anne Noel (Institut CSA), who coordinated the selection of the controls and the interviews, and Catherine Tricoche (Callson), Christophe David and the team of interviewers (Institut IPSOS), who interviewed the cases and controls.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CRESS-EPICEA Epidémiologie des cancers de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, Inserm, Université Paris-Descartes, Université Sorbonne-Paris-Cité, Paris, France

    Paula Rios, Helen D. Bailey, Brigitte Lacour, Laurent Orsi & Jacqueline Clavel

  2. RNCE - National Registry of Childhood Cancers- hematopoietic cancers, Villejuif, France

    Paula Rios, Helen D. Bailey, Brigitte Lacour, Laurent Orsi & Jacqueline Clavel

  3. RNCE - National Registry of Childhood Cancers-solid tumours, CHU de Nancy, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France

    Brigitte Lacour

  4. Service d’Oncologie Pédiatrique, Institut Gustave Roussy, Paris, France

    Dominique Valteau-Couanet

  5. Service d’Oncologie Pédiatrique, Institut Curie, Paris, France

    Jean Michon

  6. Institut d’Hématologie et d’Oncologie Pédiatrique, Lyon, France

    Christophe Bergeron

  7. Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, Service Hématologie Oncologie Pédiatrique, Hôpital Armand Trousseau, Paris, France

    Hélène Boutroux

  8. Service d’Oncologie Pédiatrique, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France

    Anne-Sophie Defachelles

  9. Sce d’Hématologie Oncologie Pédiatrique, Hôpital des Enfants, Toulouse, France

    Marion Gambart

  10. Service d’Hémato-oncologie pédiatrique, Hôpital Arnaud De Villeneuve, Montpellier, France

    Nicolas Sirvent

  11. Service d’Oncologie Pédiatrique, Hôpital de la mère et l’enfant, Nantes, France

    Estelle Thebaud

  12. Service d’Oncohématologie pédiatrique, Hôpital Pellegrin Tripode, Bordeaux, France

    Stéphane Ducassou

  13. UMRS-1153 Equipe 7 (EPICEA), Inserm, 16 avenue Paul Vaillant Couturier - Bat 15/16, 94807, Villejuif Cedex, France

    Paula Rios

Authors
  1. Paula Rios
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  2. Helen D. Bailey
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  3. Brigitte Lacour
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  4. Dominique Valteau-Couanet
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  6. Christophe Bergeron
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  7. Hélène Boutroux
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  8. Anne-Sophie Defachelles
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  9. Marion Gambart
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  10. Nicolas Sirvent
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  11. Estelle Thebaud
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  13. Laurent Orsi
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  14. Jacqueline Clavel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paula Rios.

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Rios, P., Bailey, H.D., Lacour, B. et al. Maternal use of household pesticides during pregnancy and risk of neuroblastoma in offspring. A pooled analysis of the ESTELLE and ESCALE French studies (SFCE). Cancer Causes Control 28, 1125–1132 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-017-0944-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-017-0944-5

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