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Vitamins Prevent Baby's Cancer

Background: Neuroblastoma is a common type of solid cancer that strikes infants and children. It arises in the adrenal gland and nervous tissue related to the adrenal.

Summary: "In the largest epidemiologic study of neuroblastoma ever conducted in North America, we found a 30% to 40% reduction in the risk of this childhood cancer...due to the maternal use of multivitamins during pregnancy." ( lead author Dr. Andrew F. Olshan of the University of North Carolina).

Comment: This research provides additional support for the recommendation that vitamin use before and during pregnancy is beneficial to the health of the baby.

For more, please visit the following MedicineNet.com areas:

• Neuroblastoma
• Pregnancy Planning Center
• Vitamins and Calcium Supplements Center
• FocusOnWomensHealth.com, edited by Carolyn Crandall, M.D., Associate Professor in Internal Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine

Barbara K. Hecht, Ph.D.
Medical Editor, MedicineNet.com

Maternal vitamin use significantly reduces neuroblastoma risk

Last Updated: 2002-08-27 8:31:06 -0400 

By Steven Reinberg

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who take multivitamins before or during pregnancy significantly reduce the risk of their offspring developing neuroblastoma, researchers report in the September issue of Epidemiology.

"In the largest epidemiologic study of neuroblastoma ever conducted in North

America, we found a 30% to 40% reduction in the risk of this childhood cancer...due to the maternal use of multivitamins during pregnancy," lead author Dr. Andrew F. Olshan told Reuters Health.

Dr. Olshan from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues collected data on children diagnosed with neuroblastoma from May 1, 1992 to April 30, 1994 from 139 member hospitals of either of two US and Canadian pediatric collaborative trials groups, Children's Oncology Group and Pediatric Oncology Group. They also collected data on a matched control group.

The researchers collected data on vitamin use before and during pregnancy among mothers of 538 cases and of 504 controls.

Women who used a vitamin and mineral supplement in the month before becoming pregnant or in any trimester reduced the risk for neuroblastoma by 30% to 40%, Dr. Olshan's team found. The team was not able to tell which particular vitamins or minerals had this effect, they add.

Taking into account age when neuroblastoma was diagnosed or MYCN oncogene amplification status did not substantially change the finding, the investigators note.

"The finding should not be interpreted as causal, but as suggestive of an association," Dr. Olshan said. "The specific vitamin(s) potentially responsible for the reduction in risk are uncertain. Additional study, especially laboratory work, is needed to evaluate the potential for specific vitamins or combinations to modify the initiation and/or progression of neuroblastoma," he added.

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