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Am J Epidemiol 2002; 156:517-526.
Copyright © 2002 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health


ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Family History of Cancer and Incidence of Acute Leukemia in Adults

Garth H. Rauscher1, Dale P. Sandler2, Charles Poole3, James Pankow4, Beverly Mitchell5, Clara D. Bloomfield6 and Andrew F. Olshan3

1 Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, IL.
2 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC.
3 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
4 Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
5 Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
6 Cancer and Leukemia Group B, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

Family history of cancer may represent shared genetic and environmental risk factors for leukemia. The authors examined associations of first-degree family history of cancer with adult acute leukemia incidence by using data on 811 patients (or their proxies) identified at diagnosis and 637 population-based controls in the United States and Canada during 1986–1990. For proxy-interviewed patients, relative risks were elevated for family history of any cancer (relative risk = 1.7, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3, 2.4), hematopoietic cancer (relative risk = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1, 3.0), leukemia (relative risk = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.3, 4.6), and breast cancer (relative risk = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.0, 3.0) but not for colorectal, prostate, or lung cancer. For self-interviewed patients, family history of hematopoietic cancer was inversely associated with leukemia incidence (relative risk = 0.6, 95% CI: 0.4, 1.1). Regardless of patient interview type, history of breast cancer in sisters was positively associated with adult acute leukemia, whereas history of breast cancer in mothers was not. The role of family history of cancer in leukemia etiology is unclear because of differential reporting by patients and proxies. Specifically, self-interviewed patients may underreport cancer in their first-degree relatives. Associations between family history of breast cancer and leukemia incidence may be the result of unmeasured, shared etiologies specific to these cancers.

case-control studies; leukemia; proxy; risk factors

Abbreviations: Abbreviations: CALGB, Cancer and Leukemia Group B; CI, confidence interval.


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