B120
Birth weight distribution in a cohort of children with Wilms tumour or rhabdomyosarcoma
Marco Geraci1, Robert Alston1, Ramandeep Arora1, Tim Eden2, Jillian Birch1
1Cancer Research UK Paediatric and Familial Cancer Research Group, University of Manchester, UK, 2University of Manchester, UK
Background
An association of increased birthweight and Wilms tumour (WT) has been previously reported while that for rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) has not been described.
Method
Data on all children under 15 years of age with WT or RMS registered with the Manchester Childrens Tumour Registry (MCTR) from 1954 to 2008 and those enrolled in the population-based UK Childrens Cancer Study (UKCCS) from Merseyside and North Wales from 1992 to 1996 were included. Demographic variables and information on birth weights and congenital anomalies were available. We analysed the distribution of birthweights of the cases as compared to that in the population in England and Wales. Also, we carried out similar analyses after stratifying the data by age (below/above median age at diagnosis), sex and absence/presence of congenital anomaly.
Results
Birth weight data were available on 291/325 (89%) of WT cases and 160/218 (73%) of RMS cases in the dataset. There was a statistically significant excess of WT cases with birth weight above the 90th (P = 0.02) and the 95th population percentiles (P < 0.001).
Similarly, there was a statistically significant excess of alveolar RMS cases with birth weight above the 90th (P = 0.005) and the 95th percentiles (P = 0.03) but not for embryonal RMS. For both WT and alveolar RMS cases, the significant excess was mainly in those with at least one congenital anomaly and in older children.
Conclusion
We confirm the previous reported association of increased birth weight in children with WT and report that this is restricted to older children and those with at least one congenital anomaly. We also report a novel finding of increased birth weight in children with alveolar but not embryonal RMS.
