Epidemiology of Childhood Leukaemia

The preface

„Based on the operation of cancer registries and large cooperative clinical trials the epidemiology of childhood malignancies has been subject to increased international research activities during the two last decades. Publications on the possibly increased risk of childhood leukaemias in the vicinity of nuclear installations have raised worldwide public concern during the last few years.

After the completion of a large German oecological study on childhood malignancies near nuclear power plants, the Bundesminister für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU), Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, suggested to organize an international workshop in order to discuss the German results together with experts from other countries and to sum up the international experiences in this field.

Since the present scientific knowledge indicates that regular operation of nuclear power plants does not increase the risk of cancer in the population living close to these installations, the scope for possible aetiologic factors which might be associated with childhood leukaemias and may be analysed by means of epidemiological studies was broadend for the workshop.

The workshop started after an introductory lecture by Prof. Töpfer with the presentation of studies on childhood leukaemia near British, Canadian and German nuclear installations. Thereafter, present knowledge and recent studies of possible effects from natural radiation and electromagnetic fields were described and discussed.

The search for aetiological factors of leukaemia has also to take into account toxological and immunological factors. This was the subject of the subsequent series of contributions. Clustering of childhood leukaemias has frequently been described. New methods for the detection of clusters have been worked out and are described with examples from applications in the present proceedings.” 

Table of contents

P. Cook-Mozaffari, Main results from ecological studies on childhood malignancies in the vicinity of British nuclear installations

J. r. McLaughlin, E. A. Clarke, W. King, D. Nishri, T. W. Anderson, Childhood leukaemia around five major Canadian nuclear facilities

J. Michaelis, B. Keller, G. Haaf, P. Kaatsch, Incidence of childhood malignancies in the vicinity of west German nuclear facilities

M. Möhner, R. Stabenow, Childhood malignancies around nuclear installations in the former GDR

B. Grosche, Observations around nuclear facilities in Bavaria

P. Doyle, The U.K. nuclear industry family study

R. A. Cartwright, Summary of epidemiological evidence on childhood leukaemia near nuclear installations

W. Jacobi, D. Chmelevsky, Possible age-specific leukaemia rate from natural radiation

D. L. Henshaw, Current evidence for an association between radon exposure and childhood leukaemia

R. A. Cartwright, Magnetic fields and childhood cancer

C. E. Minder, D. Pfluger, Leukaemia mortality and extremely low frequency electromagnetic field exposure: The model of locomotive engine drivers

W. Burkart, Molecular mechanisms in radiation-induced cancer

D. Henschler, Comparisons between chemical and radiation factors

J. R. Schlehofer, Association of virus infections with lymphomas and leukaemias in humans

G. E. Janka-Schaub, Immunological factors and childhood leukaemias – patho-physiological and clinical perspectives

I. Schmidtmann, I. Zöllner, Results of various methodological approaches to cluster detection in the German registry of childhood malignancies

P. Alexander, Clusters of childhood leukaemia and lymphoma – identification and interpretation

L. J. Kinlen, Infection as a cause of childhood leukaemia: The relevance of population mixing

T. Boehm, Chromosomal Damage in Lymphoid Tumors

G. J. Draper, Family aggregation of childhood leukaemias and lymphomas

J. W. Coebergh, A. van der Does, W. A. Kamps, J. A. Rammeloo, F. van Weerden, E. R. van Wering, Epidemiological studies of childhood leukaemia in the Netherlands since 1972: Experience of the Dutch Childhood Leukaemia Study Group (DCLSG)

L .L. Robinson, J. Potter, J. Buckley, G. Bunin, N. Heerema, J. Kersey, D. Miller, J. Neglia, G. Reaman, H. Sather, R. Severson, M. Trigg, Investigation of risk factors for childhood acute lymphoid leukaemia within biologically-defined subgroups: The Childrens Cancer Group protocol E15