Parental occupations and cancer in children--a case-control study and review of the methodologic issues

The findings of a number of published reports have been conflicting with regard to the role of parental occupation in the occurrence of cancer in children. In the present study, the occupations and occupational exposures of parents before and after the birth of a child who later developed leukemia or a brain tumor (cases) were compared with the occupational experience of parents of children with other cancers and of normal children. Forty-three children diagnosed with leukemia from 1969 through 1974 and 70 children diagnosed with brain tumors from 1965 through 1974 in the Baltimore Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area were ascertained. The findings of the present study do not demonstrate a relationship between parental occupation and occurrence of leukemia or brain tumors in the offspring. The results of this and other studies are evaluated in the context of a number of important but difficult methodologic issues that arise in studies of this potentially significant subject area.