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Pesticides Linked To Childhood Leukemia Risk

Posted on: Thursday, 30 July 2009, 12:33 CDT

Common household pesticides appear to be linked to a higher risk of childhood leukemia, researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers from Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center discovered a higher level of common pesticides in the urine of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

ALL is a type of cancer that usually develops between the ages of three and seven years.

"In our study, we compared urine samples from children with ALL and their mothers with healthy children and their moms. We found elevated levels of common household pesticides more often in the mother-child pairs affected by cancer," said Offie Soldin, an epidemiologist at Lombardi and lead author of the report issued in the journal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring.

“We shouldn't assume that pesticides caused these cancers, but our findings certainly support the need for more robust research in this area.”

Researchers conducted the study from January 2005 to January 2008. Participants involved were from Lombardi and Children's National Medical Center. The study had 41 pairs of healthy children with ALL and their mothers.

Researchers said the recent study is the first of its kind to be conducted in a large, metropolitan area.

Researchers took urine samples from mothers and their child, which were analyzed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scientists were looking for traces of organophosphates (OP), the chemical name of some household pesticides.

Researchers said they found OP in the urine of more than half of the children involved in the study. Additionally, they found that higher levels of two common OP metobolites -- diethylthiophosphate (DETP) and diethyldithiophosphate (DEDTP) in children with ALL.

"We know pesticides – sprays, strips, or 'bombs,' are found in at least 85 percent of households, but obviously not all the children in these homes develop cancer. What this study suggests is an association between pesticide exposure and the development of childhood ALL, but this isn't a cause-and-effect finding," said Soldin.

"Future research would help us understand the exact role of pesticides in the development of cancer. We hypothesize that pre-natal exposure coupled with genetic susceptibility or an additional environmental insult after birth could be to blame."

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On the Net:

• Georgetown University Medical Center
• Therapeutic Drug Monitoring

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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