Investigation of Epidemiologic Factors in Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

In this study, we aimed to investigate epidemiologic factors in children with Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The parents of 105 children diagnosed and treated as ALL between the years 1997 –2007 in our Clinic of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology were questioned and results were compared with control group that consisted of 102 healthy children with similar age and gender. The mean age of the patients was 8.57 ± 3.95 years. The mean age at diagnosis was 5.87 ± 3.73 years. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of type of delivery, birth weight, asphyxia at birth, resuscitation with high-concentration oxygen and ventilatory support (p>0.05). There was also no significant difference between the groups in terms of duration of breast feeding. The rate of exposure to infections prior to diagnosis was higher in control group (p:0.003). Besides that, the rate of going to nursery was also significantly higher in control group (p:0.014). There was no difference between the groups in terms of X-ray exposure (p>0.05). In conclusion over-protection from infectious agents in and delay in meeting with some specific agents seems to increase ALL risk. Infections in early infantile period can be protective against leukemia. There has to be more extended studies on this subject.