Evaluating novel risk factors for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Nadia Barahmani, The University of Texas School of Public Health

Abstract

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood leukemia accounting for 70- 75% of cases worldwide. Both genetic and environmental stressors are two major factors suspected to influence the occurrence of ALL. Therapeutic success in survival of childhood ALL has increased the risk of late occurring complications, and co-morbidities. These consequences have a large impact on the quality of a survivor's life and society from continued medical care, ancillary services, and financial burden. In order to reduce the incidence and lessen the burden of childhood ALL, we aim to identify the association of two novel parental occupational exposures, asthmagens and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and the risk of childhood ALL among children under the age of 15 years who were recruited at Texas Children's Hospital (TCH), Houston, Texas between May 2007 and April 2012 using job exposure matrices (JEM). In the current study, I studied 129 ALL cases and 212 healthy controls from an ongoing epidemiological case-control study entitled "Exploring Potential Risk Factors for Childhood Cancer and Hematological Disorders by Case-Control Studies". Descriptive statistics were used to assess the frequency distribution and differences between case and control parents using chi-squared tests (or Fisher's exact test) for the categorical variables. We believe our findings helped to shed light on the underlying causes and mechanism of the disease, which might help in reducing the incidence of these conditions and the public health burden.

Subject Area

Epistemology|Environmental Health|Medicine|Public health

Recommended Citation

Barahmani, Nadia, "Evaluating novel risk factors for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia" (2014). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI3639277.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI3639277

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