Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jul 24;107(3):544-8.
doi: 10.1038/bjc.2012.288. Epub 2012 Jul 3.

Antenatal maternal bereavement and childhood cancer in the offspring: a population-based cohort study in 6 million children

J Li  1 , M Vestergaard, C Obel, S Cnattingus, M Gissler, J Ahrensberg, J Olsen
Affiliations

Antenatal maternal bereavement and childhood cancer in the offspring: a population-based cohort study in 6 million children

J Li et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Prenatal stress may increase the susceptibility to childhood cancer by affecting immune responses and hormonal balance. We examined whether antenatal stress following maternal bereavement increased the risk of childhood cancer.

Methods: All children born in Denmark from 1968 to 2007 (N=2 743 560) and in Sweden from 1973 to 2006 (N=3 400 212) were included in this study. We compared cancer risks in children born to women who lost a first-degree relative (a child, spouse, a parent, or a sibling) the year before pregnancy or during pregnancy with cancer risks in children of women who did not experience such bereavement.

Results: A total of 9795 childhood cancer cases were observed during follow-up of 68 360 707 person years. Children born to women who lost a child or a spouse, but not those who lost other relatives, had an average 30% increased risk of any cancer (hazard ratio (HR) 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96-1.77). The HRs were the highest for non-Hodgkin disease (512 cases in total, HR 3.40, 95% CI 1.51-7.65), hepatic cancer (125 cases in total, HR 5.51, 95% CI 1.34-22.64), and testicular cancer (86 cases in total, HR 8.52, 95% CI 2.03-37.73).

Conclusion: Our data suggest that severe antenatal stress following maternal bereavement, especially due to loss of a child or a spouse, is associated with an increased risk of certain childhood cancers in the offspring, such as hepatic cancer and non-Hodgkin disease, but not with childhood cancer in general.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association: Washington DC
    1. Anderson LM (2006) Environmental genotoxicants/carcinogens and childhood cancer: Bridgeable gaps in scientific knowledge. Mutat Res 608: 136–156 - PubMed
    1. Anderson LM, Diwan BA, Fear NT, Roman E (2000) Critical windows of exposure for children's health: cancer in human epidemiological studies and neoplasms in experimental animal models. Environ Health Perspect 108(Suppl 3): 573–594 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benediktsson R, Calder AA, Edwards CR, Seckl JR (1997) Placental 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase: a key regulator of fetal glucocorticoid exposure. Clin Endocrinol 46: 161–166 - PubMed
    1. Bermejo JL, Sundquist J, Hemminki K (2007) Risk of cancer among the offspring of women who experienced parental death during pregnancy. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 16: 2204–2206 - PubMed

Publication types