Childhood cancer incidence by ethnic group in England, 2001–2007: a descriptive epidemiological study

BMC Cancer

Table 3 Prevalence of some risk factors associated with childhood cancers, by ethnic group in the general population (most data sources: 2001–2010)

	Cancer Associated with Risk Factor^a	British White	British Indian	British Pakistani	British Bangladeshi	British Black African	British Black Caribbean	British Chinese
Parental risk factors:
Maternal age at pregnancy >35 years (%) [34, 56, 57]	Leukaemia; Lymphoma; CNS; Bone; Wilm’s	20	12	10	7	20	26	---
Maternal alcohol intake in pregnancy (%) [35, 56, 58]	Acute Myeloid Leukaemia	37	12	0	0	20	20	---
Maternal smoking in pregnancy (%) [36, 37, 56, 58]	Acute Myeloid Leukaemia; CNS	37	6	4	4	22	22	---
Epstein-Barr virus prevalence in pregnancy (%)^b [59]	Hodgkin’s Disease	94	94	94	94	---	---	---
Breastfed for at least four months (%) [58, 60, 61]	↓Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia	27	41	26	26	50	50	---
Paternal smoking (male prevalence 2003/4) [38, 39, 56, 62]	Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia	27	23	18	35	26	22	19
General Risk Factors:
Household size (mean) [63, 64]	Leukaemia	2.3	3.4	4.3	4.3	2.6	2.2	---
High birth weight > 4000 g (%) [33, 56, 57]	All childhood cancers	13	3	5	3	9	6	---
HIV (%)^{b c} [43, 65]	Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma	53	1	1	1	35	3	---
Epstein-Barr virus prevalence (%)^{b d} [66]	Hodgkin’s disease	44	95	95	95	---	---	---
Asthma prevalence (%) [52, 53]	↓CNS	32	24	29	26	23	33	---

^aDirection of effect increased unless indicated with ↓
^bCombined estimate (italicised) for some ethnic minority groups
^cProportional breakdown across ethnicities of diagnosed HIV infected adults seen for care in England, Wales and NI (2003)
^dwithin a study of children with Hodgkin’s disease, diagnosed 1981–1999
--- Data not available

ISSN: 1471-2407