1. ¹National School of Public Health/FIOCRUZ, Rua Leopoldo Bulhões, 1480, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21041-210, Brazil
2. ²Divisão de Medicina Experimental, Centro de Pesquisa – Instituto Nacional De Câncer, Rio de Janeiro, Rua André Cavalcanti, 37, CEP, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20231-050, Brazil

Correspondence: Dr MS Pombo-de-Oliveira, E-mail: mpombo@inca.gov.br

³Members and affiliations of the Brazilian Collaborative Study Group of Infant Acute Leukemia (BCSGIAL) are listed in the appendix as co-authors.

Received 26 September 2007; Revised 30 November 2007; Accepted 2 January 2008; Published online 29 January 2008.

Abstract

In this paper, we compared the birth weight distribution among 201 infant leukaemia (IL) cases with that of 440 noncancer controls enrolled in Brazil in 1999–2005. Compared with the general population and the stratum 2500–2999 g as reference, IL cases weighing 3000–3999 g presented an odds ratio (OR) of 1.68 (95% CI: 1.03–2.76), and those of 4000 g or more, an OR of 2.28 (95% CI: 1.08–4.75), P_trend<0.01. Using hospital-based controls, the OR for 4000 g or more, compared to 2500–2999 g, was 1.30 (95% CI: 1.02–1.43) after adjusting for confounders (gender, income, maternal age, pesticide and hormonal exposure during pregnancy). The results suggest that high birth weight is associated with increased risk of IL.