A review of risk factors for childhood leukemia

Leukemia is the most common cancer of childhood, with AML, CML, ALL and CLL being the most common. Environmental and genetic factors have been studied extensively in children with childhood leukemia. Other factors, such as the prenatal parental use of controlled substances, have not been investigated to the same degree. We review what is currently known about environmental and parental factors and the occurrence of leukemia in children.

Electronic databases were searched for studies correlated pediatric leukemia with (1) ionizing radiation; (2) benzene; (3) parental drug use (4) parental alcohol use; (5) genetic factors.

The two known significant environment risk factors for the occurrence leukemia are ionizing radiation and benzene. However, at least 4 studies have been published over the last century have looked at other environmental factors such as pesticides and drug and alcohol use as well as genetic factors such as gene fusions and translocations.

We determined the risk of environmental and genetic factors that could be the cause of childhood leukemia in an effort to reduce the incidence of this disease.