1. ¹Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Ole Worms Allé 150, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark
2. ²Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, Aarhus University, Vennelyst Boulevard 6, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark

Correspondence: Dr V Langagergaard, E-mail: Vivian.Langagergaard@stab.rm.dk

Received 15 August 2007; Revised 12 November 2007; Accepted 14 November 2007; Published online 4 December 2007.

Abstract

In a Danish nationwide cohort study of 292 births from 1973 to 2002 in women with Hodgkin's disease (HD), we compared birth outcome with 14 042 births from a cohort of mothers without cancer. We found no substantially increased risk of preterm birth, low birth weight at term, or stillbirth and no difference in proportion of male newborns for 192 children of women with HD before pregnancy. The prevalence odds ratio (POR) for congenital abnormalities was 1.7 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.9–3.1). Among 15 newborns of mothers diagnosed during pregnancy, the POR of preterm birth was 26.6 (95% CI: 8.5–83.0), but five out of the eight preterm deliveries among these women were elective. We found no substantially increased risk of adverse birth outcome among 85 newborns of women diagnosed within 2 years postpartum, though effect estimates were imprecise. The overall findings are reassuring, they cannot exclude the possibility of an increased risk of congenital abnormalities for newborns of women diagnosed with HD before pregnancy.