Maternal migraine and risk of pediatric cancers

Helen T Orimoloye; Julia E Heck; Andrew Charles; Chai Saechao; Di He; Noah Federman; Jorn Olsen; Beate Ritz; Johnni Hansen

doi:10.1002/pbc.30385

Maternal migraine and risk of pediatric cancers

Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2023 Jul;70(7):e30385. doi: 10.1002/pbc.30385. Epub 2023 Apr 26.

Authors

Helen T Orimoloye¹, Julia E Heck^{1

2}, Andrew Charles³, Chai Saechao⁴, Di He², Noah Federman⁵, Jorn Olsen⁶, Beate Ritz², Johnni Hansen⁷

Affiliations

¹ College of Health and Public Service, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, USA.
³ Goldberg Migraine Program, Department of Neurology, UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁴ UCLA Health, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁶ Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
⁷ Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Abstract

Background: Maternal migraine has been linked to adverse birth outcomes including low birth weight and preterm birth, as well as congenital anomalies in offspring. It has been speculated that this may be due to the use of medications in pregnancy, but lifestyle, genetic, hormonal, and neurochemical factors could also play a role. There is evidence for varying cancer incidences among adults with migraine. Here, we utilized data from national registries in Denmark to examine associations between maternal diagnoses of migraine and risk for cancer in offspring.

Methods: We linked several national registries in Denmark to identify cases from the Cancer Registry among children less than 20 years (diagnoses 1996-2016) and controls from the Central Population Register, matched to cases by birth year and sex (25:1 matching rate). Migraine diagnoses were identified from the National Patient Register using International Classification of Diseases, versions 8 and 10 codes and migraine-specific acute or prophylactic treatment recorded in the National Pharmaceutical Register. We used logistic regression to estimate the risk of childhood cancers associated with maternal migraine.

Results: Maternal migraine was positively associated with risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (odds ratio [OR] = 1.70, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-2.86), central nervous system tumors ([OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.02-1.68], particularly glioma [OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.12-2.40]), neuroblastoma (OR = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.00-3.08), and osteosarcoma (OR = 2.60, 95% CI: 1.18-5.76).

Conclusions: Associations with maternal migraine were observed for several childhood cancers, including neuronal tumors. Our findings raise questions about the role of lifestyle factors, sex hormones, genetic, and neurochemical factors in the relationship between migraine and childhood cancers.

Keywords: central nervous system tumors; childhood cancer; estrogen; germ cell tumors; migraine; non-Hodgkin lymphoma; osteosarcoma; pregnancy.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adult
Central Nervous System Neoplasms* / epidemiology
Child
Female
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin* / epidemiology
Migraine Disorders* / complications
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications*
Premature Birth*
Registries
Risk Factors

Grants and funding

R21 CA175959/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States