SynthesisEuropean journal of epidemiology2019
Space-time clustering of childhood cancers: a systematic review and pooled analysis.
Synthesis in European journal of epidemiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between Outdoor Air Pollution and Childhood Leukemia: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis.Environmental health perspectives · 2019Pooled it
- Temporal clustering of neuroblastic tumours in children and young adults from Scotland.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2026Article
- Clustering of childhood acute leukemia in Finland: a nationwide register-based study.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2025Article
- Emerging infectious disease surveillance using a hierarchical diagnosis model and the Knox algorithm.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Residential proximity to petrol stations and risk of childhood leukemia.European journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Article
- Spatial distribution of incident pediatric Burkitt lymphoma in central and northern Malawi and association with malaria prevalence.Pediatric blood & cancer · 2022Article
- Birth characteristics and childhood leukemia in Switzerland: a register-based case-control study.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2021Article
- Risk Factors for Childhood Leukemia: Radiation and Beyond.Frontiers in public health · 2021Review
- Clustering of non-leukemia childhood cancer in Colombia: a nationwide study.F1000Research · 2021Article
- Childhood Leukemia in Small Geographical Areas and Proximity to Industrial Sources of Air Pollutants in Three Colombian Cities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Objectives, design and main findings until 2020 from the Rotterdam Study.European journal of epidemiology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The aetiology of childhood cancers remains largely unknown. Space-time clustering of cases might imply an aetiological role of infections. We aimed to review the evidence of space-time clustering of specific childhood cancers. We searched Medline and Embase for population-based studies that covered a pre-defined study area, included cases under 20 years of age and were published before July 2016. We extracted all space-time clustering tests and calculated the proportion of positive tests per diagnostic group. In a pooled analysis, we performed a Knox test of the number of pairs of cases close to each other in time and space pooled across studies. 70 studies met our eligibility criteria, 32 of which reported Knox tests. For leukaemia, the proportion of positive tests was higher than expected by chance at both time of diagnosis (26%) and birth (11%). The pooled analysis showed strong evidence of clustering at diagnosis for children aged 0-5 years for a spatial and temporal lag of 5 km and 6 months, respectively (p < 0.001). The evidence was mixed for lymphoma and tumours of the central nervous system. The current study suggests that leukaemia cases cluster in space-time due to an aetiological factor affecting children under 5 years of age. The observed pattern of clustering of young children close to time of diagnosis is compatible with Greaves' delayed-infections-hypothesis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.