Leukemia represents approximately 32% of all cases of malignancy in persons less than 15 years of age. Only approximately 17% of all cases in this age group are classified under the category of acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) with a reported annual incidence rate per million population of 6.2 for whites and 4.5 for non-whites. The etiology of childhood ANLL is unknown. Published reports on the epidemiology of ANLL in children are rare and review of the literature has failed to identify any published reports of case/control studies within pediatric populations. We proposed to investigate the role of selected environmental factors in the etiology of childhood ANLL. Specific prenatal and postnatal exposures to be investigated in this research project include pesticides, chemical solvents, petroleum products, and ionizing radiation. Incident cases of childhood ANLL will be ascertained utilizing the resources of the Childrens Cancer Study Group, a national cooperative clinical trials group which includes 29 major pediatric oncology centers. Quantitation of the risk associated with these environmental factors will be made by contrasting the cases of acute non-lymphocytic leukemia to a set of age, sex, and race-matched regional population controls. Control selection will be made utilizing a modification of random digit dialing and interviews with parents of cases and controls will be conducted by telephone. In addition, assessment will be made of the association between specific exposure or exposures and chromosomal abnormalities in the leukemia cases through comparison of exposed cases with non-exposed cases. Risk assessments will be made for all cases of ANLL combined as well as within histologic subgroups of acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia as defined by the French-American-British classification (FAB).
