Association between medically diagnosed postnatal infection and childhood cancers

Although the association between infection and childhood cancer has been long investigated, there is limited information on rarer cancers. A case-control study in Denmark included 4125 childhood cancer cases, 1:25 matched for sex and week of birth with 103,526 controls. Postnatal infections were identified in the Danish National Patient Registry. Medically diagnosed postnatal infections were positively associated with many types of childhood cancer. The authors conclude that children who later develop cancer appear to have adverse reactions to infections necessitating referral to health care services.