Study Suggests Multivitamin Use During Pregnancy Cuts Childhood Tumor Risk

The largest epidemiologic study ever conducted in North America of a childhood nervous system cancer known as neuroblastoma suggests women who take multivitamins during pregnancy can cut their children's risk of the tumor by 30 percent to 40 percent.

Researchers could not pinpoint which vitamin or vitamins were most responsible for the reduced risk, but say their findings support and are consistent with earlier studies indicating vitamin use during pregnancy seems to help protect against childhood leukemias and brain tumors. A report on the study, conducted chiefly at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, appears in the September 2002 issue of Epidemiology, a scientific journal.

Neuroblastoma is a peripheral nervous system tumor in children and is the most common tumor diagnosed in infants and is usually diagnosed in children under age 3. Typically, fewer than 50 percent of affected patients live five years following diagnosis.

Researchers identified 538 children with neuroblastoma in 139 U.S. and Canadian hospitals, then interviewed mothers of both groups to learn about their vitamin use before, during and after pregnancy and other possible health- and illness-related factors. They also adjusted for as many potentially confounding factors as they could -- such as education and income -- and compared the two groups statistically.

The study's findings, combined with previous work on reducing several birth defects with vitamin supplementation and other childhood cancers, supports the recommendation that mothers' vitamin use before and during pregnancy may benefit their babies' health. The researchers believe that physicians and other health care providers should continue to educate women about these benefits and recommend appropriate dietary habits and daily dietary supplements."

In the United States, 9.1 cases of neuroblastoma occur for every 1 million children under age 15. The National Cancer Institute supports the continuing research.

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