SynthesisBritish journal of cancer2012
An examination, with a meta-analysis, of studies of childhood leukaemia in relation to population mixing.
Synthesis in British journal of cancer, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 42 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Maternal antibiotics exposure during pregnancy and the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in childhood: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of pediatrics · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between childhood infections and the risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.British journal of cancer · 2018Pooled it
- Childhood cancer incidence around nuclear installations in Great Britain, 1995-2016.International journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Global, regional, and national burden of children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia from 1990 to 2021: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Childhood B cell leukemia: Intercepting the paths to progression.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2024Review
- A Historical Survey of Key Epidemiological Studies of Ionizing Radiation Exposure.Radiation research · 2024Review
- Solar ultraviolet radiation exposure, and incidence of childhood acute lymphocytic leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in a US population-based dataset.British journal of cancer · 2024Article
- Association between medically diagnosed postnatal infection and childhood cancers: A matched case-control study in Denmark, 1978 to 2016.International journal of cancer · 2023Article
- Childhood and adolescent cancer in Germany - an overview.Journal of health monitoring · 2023Article
- Infectious triggers and novel therapeutic opportunities in childhood B cell leukaemia.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2021Review
- Risk Factors for Childhood Leukemia: Radiation and Beyond.Frontiers in public health · 2021Review
- Association of population mixing and acute lymphocytic leukemia in children and young adults.Cancer epidemiology · 2020Article
- Epidemiology and Etiology of Leukemia and Lymphoma.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2020Review
- Epidemiological studies of natural sources of radiation and childhood cancer: current challenges and future perspectives.Journal of radiological protection : official journal of the Society for Radiological Protection · 2020Review
- The sensitivity of reported effects of EMF on childhood leukemia to uncontrolled confounding by residential mobility: a hybrid simulation study and an empirical analysis using CAPS data.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2019Article
- Case-control study of paternal occupational exposures and childhood lymphoma in Great Britain, 1962-2010.British journal of cancer · 2019Article
- The Association Between Childhood Leukemia and Population Mixing: An Artifact of Focusing on Clusters?Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2019Article
- Childhood cancer research in oxford III: The work of CCRG on ionising radiation.British journal of cancer · 2018Article
- Residential mobility and childhood leukemia.Environmental research · 2018Article
- Childhood leukaemia near nuclear sites in Belgium, 2002-2008.European journal of cancer prevention : the official journal of the European Cancer Prevention Organisation (ECP) · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMarked influxes of people into rural areas, termed rural population mixing (PM), have been associated with excesses of childhood leukaemia (CL), consistent with mini-epidemics of a mainly immunising, subclinical infection to which CL is a rare response. For such situations of rural PM would promote contacts between infected and susceptible individuals, the latter tending to have a higher than average prevalence in rural or isolated areas. Confusion has arisen from some workers applying the term PM to non-rural situations lacking known recent change.
methodsAvailable PM studies using the original definition of influxes were examined, a meta-analysis carried out of studies of CL in relation to exposure to high levels of rural PM, and also a detailed analysis by age group.
resultsThe meta-analysis of 17 studies shows a significant CL excess in association with rural PM: overall relative risk (RR) at ages 0-14: 1.57; 95% confidence interval 1.44-1.72; at 0-4 years 1.72 (1.54-1.91). This contrasts with the absence of an excess of CL in similarly exposed urban areas (RR 1.00; 0.93-1.07), pointing to a high level of immunity there. The mixed results of studies using other definitions of PM were summarised. The excess associated with rural PM below age 2 years (RR 1.51; 1.17, 1.92) was not appreciably different from that at later childhood ages.
conclusionMuch of the inconsistency among studies ostensibly about CL and PM reflects the use of definitions other than that originally proposed. The broad similarity of the CL excess below age 2 with that at older childhood ages is inconsistent with the Greaves' delayed infection hypothesis, since any infection underlying the former is difficult to consider as delayed.
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