Birth weight and childhood cancer deaths

For investigation of the hypothesis that elevated birth weight characterizes children dying from cancer, birth weights of over 3,000 children who died of cancer were compared with those of matched controls alive at the time of the case's death. Analysis revealed no consistent pattern of association between birth weight and subsequent cancer death. Girls who died of solid tumors between ages 1 and 10 had a significantly higher mean birth weight and an excess of high birth weights separate from the influence of maternal age, birth order, and socioeconomic status. Boys who died of solid tumors between birth and 2 years had a significantly lower mean birth weight and exhibited a significant, progressive linear decrease in representation across the birth-weight distribution in the controlled analysis. However, this study, the largest to date, did not support previous claims that birth weight may be an important predictor of childhood cancer risk.