Space-time interactions in childhood cancers

During the last twenty five years, there have been sporadic published reports of cases of childhood leukaemia occurring in clusters. Renewed interest in the topic, following suggests that clusters may occur in the vicinity of nuclear establishments, has prompted this report of an investigation into 418 childhood cancer cases which occurred in the Midlands between 1953 and 1960. There was evidence among some age groups and diagnoses of an unexpectedly high number of close pairs of onsets, and some indication of similar patterns among births of children who later developed cancer. Measles appeared to occur more often in the 2-3 years before the onset of leukaemia in children who were later involved in close pairs than in their matched controls. It is concluded that common infectious diseases of childhood may play a minor role in the development of some cancers. Epidemics of these diseases may then be reflected on a greatly reduced scale in the subsequent distribution of cancer cases. (author)