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Maternal autoimmune disease is not associated with cancer in the offspring
Author(s) -
Seppälä Laura K.,
MadanatHarjuoja LauraMaria,
Troisi Rebecca,
Sampson Joshua N.,
Lein Maarit K.,
Vettenranta Kim
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.15821
Subject(s) - medicine , offspring , odds ratio , pregnancy , cancer , autoimmune disease , disease , case control study , population , confidence interval , obstetrics , immunology , genetics , environmental health , biology
Abstract Aim Autoimmune disease and its medication are associated with increased cancer risk in adults, but it is unknown whether maternal autoimmune disease and/or medication use in pregnancy are associated with increased cancer risk in offspring. Methods In this case‐control study, we identified all patients under 20 years of age with their first cancer diagnosis in 1996–2014 from the Finnish Cancer Registry ( n = 2029) and 1:5 population‐based controls ( n = 10,103) from the Medical Birth Register. We obtained information on maternal autoimmune disease and its medication from the relevant Finnish registries and used conditional logistic regression to analyse the risk of offspring cancer after maternal autoimmune disease exposure. Results The odds ratio (OR) for cancer in offspring following maternal autoimmune exposure was 0.76 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.47–1.23). Individual ORs for inflammatory bowel and connective tissue diseases were 1.08 (95% CI 0.56–2.01) and 0.50 (95% CI 0.23–1.08), respectively. The OR for maternal autoimmune medication was 0.95 (95% CI 0.80–1.14) overall and similar by drug subtype. There was an increased risk with medication in late pregnancy but the ORs were unstable owing to small numbers. Conclusion Our study does not support an increased cancer risk among offspring of women with autoimmune disease or its medication during pregnancy.