TY - JOUR
TI - Spatial temporal patterns in childhood leukaemia: further evidence for
an infectious origin
AU - Alexander, FE
AU - Boyle, P
AU - Carli, PM
AU - Coebergh, JW
AU - Draper, GJ
AU - and Ekbom, A
AU - Levi, F
AU - McKinney, PA
AU - McWhirter, W
AU - Magnani,
AU - C
AU - Michaelis, J
AU - Olsen, JH
AU - Peris-Bonet, R
AU - Petridou, E and
AU - Pukkala, E
AU - Vatten, L
JO - British Journal of Cancer
PY - 1998
VL - 77
TODO - 5
SP - 812-817
PB - Churchill Livingstone
SN - 0007-0920, 1532-1827
TODO - 10.1038/bjc.1998.132
TODO - infection; childhood leukaemia; acute lymphoblastic leukaemia; delayed
exposure; infant leukaemia; in utero exposure; cluster
TODO - The EUROCLUS project included information on residence at diagnosis for
13351 cases of childhood leukaemia diagnosed in the period 1980-89 in
defined geographical regions in 17 countries. A formal algorithm permits
identification of small census areas as containing case excesses. The
present analysis examines spatial-temporal patterns of the cases (n =
970) within these clustered areas. The objectives were, first, to
compare these results with those from an analysis conducted for UK data
for the period 1966-83, and, second, to extend them to consider infant
leukaemias. A modification of the Knox test investigates, within the
small areas, temporal overlap between cases in a subgroup of interest at
a putative critical time and all other cases at any time between birth
and diagnosis. Critical times were specified in advance as follows. for
cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia aged 2-4 years, the 18-month
period preceding diagnosis; for cases of total leukaemia aged 5-14
years, 1 year before to 1 year after birth; and for infant cases
(diagnosed < 1 year), 1 year before to 6 months after birth. Each of the
analyses found evidence of excess space-time overlap compared with that
expected; these were 10% (P = 0.005), 15% (P = 0.0002) and 26% (P=
0.03) respectively. The results are interpreted in terms of an
infectious origin of childhood leukaemia.
ER -