Workshop to Identify Critical Windows of Exposure for Children's Health: Cancer Work Group Summary

Overview

Journal Environ Health Perspect

Date 2000 Jun 15

PMID 10852858

Citations 14

Authors

A F Olshan

L Anderson

E Roman

N Fear

M Wolff

R Whyatt

V Vu

B A Diwan

N Potischman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We considered whether there are discrete windows of vulnerability in the development of cancer and which time periods may be of the greatest importance. Cancer was considered broadly, including cancers in childhood as well as adult cancers that may have an in utero or childhood origin. We concluded that there was evidence from animal and epidemiologic studies for causal relationships for preconceptional, in utero, and childhood exposures and cancer occurrence in children and adults. However, the evidence is incomplete and all relevant critical windows may not have been identified. The comprehensive evaluation of the relative importance of specific time windows of exposure is limited. Improvements in the design of epidemiologic studies and additional animal studies of mechanisms are warranted.

Citing Articles

Perinatal exposure to ambient fine particle air pollution and risk of childhood ewing sarcoma in a population-based case-control study in California (1988-2015).

Clark C, Wang R, Wiemels J, Metayer C, Deziel N, Ma X Environ Health. 2025; 24(1):6.

PMID: 40055781 PMC: 11887085. DOI: 10.1186/s12940-025-01159-6.

A case-cohort study of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance concentrations and incident prostate cancer in the cancer prevention Study-II LifeLink cohort study.

Troeschel A, Teras L, Hodge J, Rodriguez J, Wang Y, Daniel J Environ Res. 2024; 259:119560.

PMID: 38971361 PMC: 11563186. DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119560.

Cancer incidence trends in New York State and associations with common population-level exposures 2010-2018: an ecological study.

Yuan H, Kehm R, Daaboul J, Lloyd S, McDonald J, Mu L Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):7141.

PMID: 38531903 PMC: 10966002. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56634-w.

Case-control study of paternal occupational exposures and childhood lymphoma in Great Britain, 1962-2010.

Bunch K, Kendall G, Stiller C, Vincent T, Murphy M Br J Cancer. 2019; 120(12):1153-1161.

PMID: 31105271 PMC: 6738046. DOI: 10.1038/s41416-019-0469-7.

The International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C): A research platform of prospective cohorts for studying the aetiology of childhood cancers.

Tikellis G, Dwyer T, Paltiel O, Phillips G, Lemeshow S, Golding J Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2018; 32(6):568-583.

PMID: 30466188 PMC: 11155068. DOI: 10.1111/ppe.12519.

References

Felix C . Evidence of early start for common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Lancet. 1999; 354(9189):1486-7. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(99)00339-6. View

Stewart A, Webb J, Hewitt D . A survey of childhood malignancies. Br Med J. 1958; 1(5086):1495-508. PMC: 2029590. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.1.5086.1495. View

Anderson L, Diwan B, Fear N, Roman E . Critical windows of exposure for children's health: cancer in human epidemiological studies and neoplasms in experimental animal models. Environ Health Perspect. 2000; 108 Suppl 3:573-94. PMC: 1637809. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.00108s3573. View

Herbst A, POSKANZER D, Robboy S, Friedlander L, Scully R . Prenatal exposure to stilbestrol. A prospective comparison of exposed female offspring with unexposed controls. N Engl J Med. 1975; 292(7):334-9. DOI: 10.1056/NEJM197502132920704. View

Knudson Jr A, Hethcote H, BROWN B . Mutation and childhood cancer: a probabilistic model for the incidence of retinoblastoma. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975; 72(12):5116-20. PMC: 388887. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.72.12.5116. View

Huff V, Meadows A, Riccardi V, Strong L, Saunders G . Parental origin of de novo constitutional deletions of chromosomal band 11p13. Am J Hum Genet. 1990; 47(1):155-60. PMC: 1683741. View

Olshan A, Faustman E . Male-mediated developmental toxicity. Annu Rev Public Health. 1993; 14:159-81. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.pu.14.050193.001111. View

Whyatt R, Perera F . Application of biologic markers to studies of environmental risks in children and the developing fetus. Environ Health Perspect. 1995; 103 Suppl 6:105-10. PMC: 1518899. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.95103s6105. View

Stewart P, Stewart W, Heineman E, Dosemeci M, Linet M, Inskip P . A novel approach to data collection in a case-control study of cancer and occupational exposures. Int J Epidemiol. 1996; 25(4):744-52. DOI: 10.1093/ije/25.4.744. View

10.

Zingg J, Jones P . Genetic and epigenetic aspects of DNA methylation on genome expression, evolution, mutation and carcinogenesis. Carcinogenesis. 1997; 18(5):869-82. DOI: 10.1093/carcin/18.5.869. View

11.

Dryja T, Morrow J, Rapaport J . Quantification of the paternal allele bias for new germline mutations in the retinoblastoma gene. Hum Genet. 1997; 100(3-4):446-9. DOI: 10.1007/s004390050531. View

12.

Shen M, Jones I, Mohrenweiser H . Nonconservative amino acid substitution variants exist at polymorphic frequency in DNA repair genes in healthy humans. Cancer Res. 1998; 58(4):604-8. View

13.

Shaw G, Rozen R, Finnell R, Wasserman C, Lammer E . Maternal vitamin use, genetic variation of infant methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, and risk for spina bifida. Am J Epidemiol. 1998; 148(1):30-7. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009555. View

14.

Infante-Rivard C, Labuda D, Krajinovic M, Sinnett D . Risk of childhood leukemia associated with exposure to pesticides and with gene polymorphisms. Epidemiology. 1999; 10(5):481-7. View

15.

Wiemels J, Cazzaniga G, Daniotti M, Eden O, Addison G, Masera G . Prenatal origin of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children. Lancet. 1999; 354(9189):1499-503. DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(99)09403-9. View