The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7216 p388
21 September 2002

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Tentative infection-cancer link made

Children born in areas where certain infections were common around the time of birth have an increased risk of brain tumours, British researchers have suggested. They followed almost 100,000 children born in Cumbria between 1975 and 1992, and found that 24 developed brain cancer.

An analysis of the data revealed that the risk of developing this disease before the age of 14 was trebled for children born in areas where influenza was prevalent around the time of birth, and doubled for those born where measles infection was common around the time of birth. The researchers say that although brain cancer is rare, the results of their study are consistent with the theory that infection may contribute to the development of brain cancer.

But they conclude that their findings need to be replicated by other studies before definite conclusions can be drawn. The study was published in the British Journal of Cancer (2002;87:746).