Population mixing, childhood leukaemia, CNS tumours and other childhood cancers in Yorkshire

Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that variation in population mixing attributable to the diversity of migrants moving to an area is associated with the incidence of childhood leukaemia and other childhood cancers. An ecological analysis was performed on 954 children (<15 years) diagnosed with a malignancy between 1986 and 1996 in 532 electoral wards in Yorkshire, UK. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were calculated for all childhood leukaemias (n=325), acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (n=248), central nervous system (CNS) tumours (n=236) and other solid tumours (n=393) Incidence of all childhood leukaemias was significantly lower in areas of high (top decile) population mixing (IRR 0.72, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.54-0.97) and higher in areas of low (bottom decile) population mixing (IRR 1.56, 95% CI 0.73-3.34), but similar patterns of incidence were not observed for central nervous system or other solid tumours. Population mixing may be a proxy for the range of infections circulating in a community and these results are consistent with the hypothesis that greater exposure to infections reduces the risk of developing childhood leukaemia by conferring efficient modulation of the immune system.