ArticleCancer causes & control : CCC2014
Maternal and birth characteristics and childhood rhabdomyosarcoma: a report from the Children's Oncology Group.
Article in Cancer causes & control : CCC, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maternal hormonal contraception use and childhood cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Pooled it
- Maternal Medication Use and Childhood Cancer in Offspring-Systematic Review and Considerations for Researchers.American journal of epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and cancer risk in offspring: A systematic review and meta-analysis.iScience · 2026Article
- Application of an obstetric comorbidity index to predict childhood cancer risk: a population based case-control study in Denmark.British journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Causes of Childhood Cancer: A Review of Literature (2014-2021): Part 2-Pregnancy and Birth-Related Factors.Cancers · 2025Review
- Causes of Childhood Cancer: A Review of the Recent Literature: Part I-Childhood Factors.Cancers · 2024Review
- Sex differences in associations between birth characteristics and childhood cancers: a five-state registry-linkage study.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2021Article
- Correlation between oncological family history and clinical outcome in a large monocentric cohort of pediatric patients with rhabdomyosarcoma.International journal of clinical oncology · 2021Article
- Pediatric Rhabdomyosarcoma: Epidemiology and Genetic Susceptibility.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Review
- Case-control study of paternal occupational exposures and childhood bone tumours and soft-tissue sarcomas in Great Britain, 1962-2010.British journal of cancer · 2020Article
- Rhabdomyosarcoma.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2019Review
- Prenatal and perinatal risk factors for solid childhood malignancies: A questionnaire-based study.Pediatric investigation · 2018Article
- The Role of Childhood Infections and Immunizations on Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma: A Report From the Children's Oncology Group.Pediatric blood & cancer · 2016Article
- Rhabdomyosarcoma in adults: new perspectives on therapy.Current treatment options in oncology · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposePrevious assessments of childhood rhabdomyosarcoma have indicated maternal and birth characteristics may be associated with tumor development; however, much work remains to identify novel and confirm suspected risk factors. Our objective was to evaluate the associations between maternal and birth characteristics and childhood rhabdomyosarcoma.
methodsThis case-control study included 322 cases and 322 pair-matched controls. Cases were enrolled in a trial run by the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study Group. Population-based controls were identified using random digit dialing and were individually matched to cases on race, sex, and age. Families of the case and control subjects participated in a telephone interview, which captured information on maternal characteristics (birth control use, number of prenatal visits, anemia, and abnormal bleeding during pregnancy) and birth characteristics [birth weight, preterm birth, and type of delivery (vaginal vs. cesarean)]. Conditional logistic regression models were used to calculate an odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for each exposure, adjusted for age, race, sex, household income, and parental education. As the two most common histologic types of rhabdomyosarcoma are embryonal (n = 215) and alveolar (n = 66), we evaluated effect heterogeneity of these exposures.
resultsThe only characteristic that was associated with childhood rhabdomyosarcoma, and statistically significant, was abnormal vaginal bleeding during pregnancy (OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.12-2.74). Birth control use (OR 1.45, 95% CI 0.96-2.18), anemia during pregnancy (OR 1.27, 95% CI 0.81-1.99), and preterm birth (OR 2.51, 95% CI 0.74-8.49) were positively associated with childhood rhabdomyosarcoma, but were not statistically significant. Low birth weight [adjusted odds ratios (aOR) 4.46, 95% CI 1.41-14.1] and high birth weight (aOR 2.41, 95% CI 1.09-5.35) were strongly associated with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. However, these factors did not display significant effect heterogeneity between histologic types (p > 0.15 for all characteristics).
conclusionsOverall, we found little evidence that these maternal and birth characteristics are strongly associated with childhood rhabdomyosarcoma.
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