Little is known about the causes of childhood cancers, but there has been increasing public concern that environmental toxicants may contribute to the risk of developing this heterogeneous group of diseases. California, with the largest population-based cancer registry in the world and with a unique wealth of environmental exposure databases, provides an unusual opportunity to evaluate these rare malignancies in geographically and socio-culturally diverse settings. The proposed study seeks to evaluate the first five years (1988-1992) of California statewide population-based childhood cancer incidence data in conjunction with geographic indicators of the socio-cultural diversity of the state, and in conjunction with well characterized and temporally relevant detailed statewide environmental exposure information, to explore some of the more prominent current hypotheses about environmental influences on the etiology of these diseases. This work is designed to build on the California Department of Health Services/Environmental Health Investigation Branch's long history of work in the study of childhood cancer """"""""clusters"""""""", in characterizing environmental exposures of concern to human health, and in developing geographic information system (GIS) analysis strategies to complement epidemiologic research efforts.
Specific aims are targeted at an evaluation of: - How childhood cancer rates vary with geographically defined environmental emissions or exposures; - How childhood cancer rates vary by demographic characteristics of the population; and - The independent effects of environmental or demographic risk associations. The proposed research is designed to identify risk associations worthy of more in-depth investigation, while minimizing some of the limitations of ecologic research. The investigators state that the availability of unique existing databases to characterize both exposure and disease outcome in California's large and heterogeneous population offer an opportunity to integrate epidemiologic, environmental exposure, and GIS analytic strategies to enhance our understanding of factors influencing a group of rare diseases which constitute a major cause of death in children.
| Von Behren, Julie; Spector, Logan G; Mueller, Beth A et al. (2011) Birth order and risk of childhood cancer: a pooled analysis from five US States. Int J Cancer 128:2709-16 |
| Johnson, K J; Carozza, S E; Chow, E J et al. (2011) Birth characteristics and childhood carcinomas. Br J Cancer 105:1396-401 |
| Chow, Eric J; Puumala, Susan E; Mueller, Beth A et al. (2010) Childhood cancer in relation to parental race and ethnicity: a 5-state pooled analysis. Cancer 116:3045-53 |
| Puumala, Susan E; Carozza, Susan E; Chow, Eric J et al. (2009) Childhood cancer among twins and higher order multiples. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 18:162-8 |
| Spector, Logan G; Puumala, Susan E; Carozza, Susan E et al. (2009) Cancer risk among children with very low birth weights. Pediatrics 124:96-104 |
| Johnson, Kimberly J; Carozza, Susan E; Chow, Eric J et al. (2009) Parental age and risk of childhood cancer: a pooled analysis. Epidemiology 20:475-83 |
| Nuckols, John R; Gunier, Robert B; Riggs, Philip et al. (2007) Linkage of the California Pesticide Use Reporting Database with spatial land use data for exposure assessment. Environ Health Perspect 115:684-9 |
| Urayama, Kevin Y; Von Behren, Julie; Reynolds, Peggy (2007) Birth characteristics and risk of neuroblastoma in young children. Am J Epidemiol 165:486-95 |
| Reynolds, Peggy; Von Behren, Julie; Gunier, Robert B et al. (2005) Agricultural pesticide use and childhood cancer in California. Epidemiology 16:93-100 |
| Reynolds, Peggy; Von Behren, Julie; Gunier, Robert et al. (2005) Agricultural pesticides and lymphoproliferative childhood cancer in California. Scand J Work Environ Health 31 Suppl 1:46-54; discussion 5-7 |
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