iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.
iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.



Link to original content: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12569380
Sex ratio among offspring of childhood cancer survivors treated with radiotherapy - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Feb 10;88(3):382-7.
doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6600748.

Sex ratio among offspring of childhood cancer survivors treated with radiotherapy

J F Winther  1 , J D Boice Jr, B L Thomsen, W J Schull, M Stovall, J H Olsen
Affiliations

Sex ratio among offspring of childhood cancer survivors treated with radiotherapy

J F Winther et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

It has been postulated that paternal gonadal exposure would increase the sex ratio by inducing X-chromosomal dominant lethals but that maternal gonadal exposure would decrease the sex ratio by inducing recessive sex-linked lethals. We therefore evaluated the sex ratio (male-to-female ratio) of children born to survivors of childhood cancers in Denmark. Children with cancer were identified from the Danish Cancer Registry from 1943 to 1996 and their offspring from the Central Population Registry. Radiation treatments were determined from records within the Cancer Registry and gonadal radiation exposures were estimated based on the cancer being treated and the likely proximity of the radiation fields to the gonads. Overall, 1100 survivors of childhood cancer became the parents of 2130 children. The sex ratio for male (0.99) and female (1.00) cancer survivors was similar and did not differ significantly from the Danish population (1.06). Radiotherapy did not influence the sex ratio of the children of either male or female survivors, and there was no evidence for dose-related changes over categories of estimated dose to parental gonads. We saw no consistent association between the sex ratio and the interval between cancer diagnosis of the parent and birth of the child. This nationwide study provides no support for the hypothesis that radiation exposure to the gonads results in an inherited genetic effect that would be manifested by a change in the sex ratio of children born after exposure. It may be, however, that sex ratio alterations are not a good or even a valid indicator of possible genetic effects in humans.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
M/F ratio among offspring of irradiated parents relative to the ratio among non-irradiated parents, by the male (♂) and female (♀) survivor sex and main diagnostic tumour group (listed according to increasing estimated gonadal radiation dose; groups with few observations are not included in the ranking but plotted separately). If the postulated genetic effect of radiation occurred, one would have expected the ratios of the M/F ratio among offspring of irradiated to non-irradiated parents to increase for male survivors and decrease for female survivors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Birch JM, Marsden HB (1987) A classification scheme for childhood cancer. Int J Cancer 40: 620–624 - PubMed
    1. Boice Jr JD, Robison LL, Mertens A, Stovall M, Green DM, Mulvihill JJ (2000) Stillbirths and male irradiation. J Radiol Prot 20: 321–322 (letter) - PubMed
    1. Byrne J, Rasmussen SA, Steinhorn SC, Connelly RR, Myers MH, Lynch CF, Flannery J, Austin DF, Holmes FF, Holmes GE, Strong LC, Mulvihill JJ (1998) Genetic disease in offspring of long-term survivors of childhood and adolescent cancer. Am J Hum Genet 62: 45–52 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Danish National Board of Health (1999) Cancer Incidence in 1996. Copenhagen: Danish National Board of Health
    1. Dickinson HO, Parker L, Binks K, Wakeford R, Smith J (1996) The sex ratio of children in relation to paternal preconceptional radiation dose: a study in Cumbria, northern England. J Epidemiol Commun Health 50: 645–652 - PMC - PubMed

Publication types