From
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2006/06/08/childhood-cancer.htm
l

No link found between childhood cancer, income: StatsCan
Last Updated Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:17:13 EDT
CBC News

Children living in Canada's poorest neighbourhoods aren't more likely to
get cancer, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the British Columbia Cancer Agency, Statistics Canada
and the Electric Power Research Institute analyzed data from provincial
cancer registries.

For most types of cancer, there was no statistically significant
difference in relative risk in the poorest one-fifth of neighbourhoods,
compared to the richest one-fifth, the team reports in the American
Journal of Epidemiology and Thursday's issue of Statistics Canada's
report, The Daily.

"In summary, although selective under- or overreporting of certain types
of childhood tumors by socioeconomic status or a potential causal
relation between some aspects of socioeconomic status and childhood
cancers cannot be excluded, the overall pattern that we observed seems
highly compatible with random variability," the study's authors wrote.

The researchers looked at all cancers other than leukemia diagnosed in
children up to the age of 19 between 1985 and 2001, including 94 per
cent of all reported Canadian childhood solid tumour and lymphoma cases.

An earlier study found children in Canada's poorest neighbourhoods were
less likely to get leukemia than those in the wealthiest areas.

The latest study extended the review to the incidence of other cancers,
measured by neighbourhood income based on postal codes at time of
diagnosis.

More cases were reported among males, 7,789, than females, 6, 812.

There also appeared to be a pattern in incidence of tumour type by age:

    * Tumours of the central and sympathetic nervous system,
retinoblastoma and tumours of the kidney and liver showed the highest
incidence in those under four.
    *  Lymphoma, bone tumours, germ cell tumours and carcinomas showed
the highest incidence in those aged 15 to 19.

"Lack of an association between average neighborhood income and
childhood cancer may provide some argument against the causal role of
exposures with strong relation to socioeconomic status," the researchers
said.

"It may also call into question the practice of 'routine' adjustment for
socioeconomic status as a confounder in epidemiologic studies of
childhood cancers."

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