The International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C): A research platform of prospective cohorts for studying the aetiology of childhood cancers

the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium

doi:10.1111/ppe.12519

The International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C): A research platform of prospective cohorts for studying the aetiology of childhood cancers

the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Childhood cancer is a rare but leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Established risk factors, accounting for <10% of incidence, have been identified primarily from case-control studies. However, recall, selection and other potential biases impact interpretations particularly, for modest associations. A consortium of pregnancy and birth cohorts (I4C) was established to utilise prospective, pre-diagnostic exposure assessments and biological samples. Methods: Eligibility criteria, follow-up methods and identification of paediatric cancer cases are described for cohorts currently participating or planning future participation. Also described are exposure assessments, harmonisation methods, biological samples potentially available for I4C research, the role of the I4C data and biospecimen coordinating centres and statistical approaches used in the pooled analyses. Results: Currently, six cohorts recruited over six decades (1950s-2000s) contribute data on 388 120 mother-child pairs. Nine new cohorts from seven countries are anticipated to contribute data on 627 500 additional projected mother-child pairs within 5 years. Harmonised data currently includes over 20 “core” variables, with notable variability in mother/child characteristics within and across cohorts, reflecting in part, secular changes in pregnancy and birth characteristics over the decades. Conclusions: The I4C is the first cohort consortium to have published findings on paediatric cancer using harmonised variables across six pregnancy/birth cohorts. Projected increases in sample size, expanding sources of exposure data (eg, linkages to environmental and administrative databases), incorporation of biological measures to clarify exposures and underlying molecular mechanisms and forthcoming joint efforts to complement case-control studies offer the potential for breakthroughs in paediatric cancer aetiologic research.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	568-583
Number of pages	16
Journal	Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology
Volume	32
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ppe.12519
State	Published - Nov 2018
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by: the NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)—USA; National Children’s Study—USA; Tour de Cure— Australia; the Children’s Cancer Centre Foundation—Australia; Bluey Day Foundation—Australia; Baxter Family Foundation—Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton—Australia; Private philanthropic donations—Australia; and Murdoch Children’s Research Institution (M1300049), Australia. The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 092731) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel, provided support for data pooling of the JPS. This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262700, and Innovation Fund Denmark (grant no. 09-067124). Danish cancer cases were ascertained by the Danish Childhood Cancer Registry (Steering Committee: Catherine Rechnitzer, Peter Skov Wehner, Steen Rosthøj, and Henrik Schrøder). The work within the I4C carried out by the Epigenetics Group at IARC is supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) to Z.H. and A.G. and L’Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France) to Z.H.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by: the NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)?USA; National Children's Study?USA; Tour de Cure?Australia; the Children's Cancer Centre Foundation?Australia; Bluey Day Foundation?Australia; Baxter Family Foundation?Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton?Australia; Private philanthropic donations?Australia; and Murdoch Children's Research Institution (M1300049), Australia. The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 092731) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel, provided support for data pooling of the JPS. This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262700, and Innovation Fund Denmark (grant no. 09-067124). Danish cancer cases were ascertained by the Danish Childhood Cancer Registry (Steering Committee: Catherine Rechnitzer, Peter Skov Wehner, Steen Rosth?j, and Henrik Schr?der). The work within the I4C carried out by the Epigenetics Group at IARC is supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) to Z.H. and A.G. and L?Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France) to Z.H.

Funding Information:
NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)—USA; National Children’s Study—USA; Tour de Cure— Australia; The Children’s Cancer Centre Foundation— Australia; Bluey Day Foundation—Australia; Baxter Family Foundation—Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton—Australia; Private philanthropic donations—Australia; Murdoch Children’s Research Institution, Grant/Award Number: M1300049; The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, Grant/Award Number: 092731; The University of Bristol; The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel; The Research Council of Norway; Innovation Fund Denmark, Grant/Award Number: 09-067124; Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France)

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Keywords

International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C)
birth cohort
childhood cancer
environmental exposures
leukaemia
life style factors
recall bias
selection bias

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1111/ppe.12519

Cite this

@article{cf85ee539a8b4d84ba5c9d36df7049b5,

title = "The International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C): A research platform of prospective cohorts for studying the aetiology of childhood cancers",

abstract = "Background: Childhood cancer is a rare but leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Established risk factors, accounting for <10% of incidence, have been identified primarily from case-control studies. However, recall, selection and other potential biases impact interpretations particularly, for modest associations. A consortium of pregnancy and birth cohorts (I4C) was established to utilise prospective, pre-diagnostic exposure assessments and biological samples. Methods: Eligibility criteria, follow-up methods and identification of paediatric cancer cases are described for cohorts currently participating or planning future participation. Also described are exposure assessments, harmonisation methods, biological samples potentially available for I4C research, the role of the I4C data and biospecimen coordinating centres and statistical approaches used in the pooled analyses. Results: Currently, six cohorts recruited over six decades (1950s-2000s) contribute data on 388 120 mother-child pairs. Nine new cohorts from seven countries are anticipated to contribute data on 627 500 additional projected mother-child pairs within 5 years. Harmonised data currently includes over 20 “core” variables, with notable variability in mother/child characteristics within and across cohorts, reflecting in part, secular changes in pregnancy and birth characteristics over the decades. Conclusions: The I4C is the first cohort consortium to have published findings on paediatric cancer using harmonised variables across six pregnancy/birth cohorts. Projected increases in sample size, expanding sources of exposure data (eg, linkages to environmental and administrative databases), incorporation of biological measures to clarify exposures and underlying molecular mechanisms and forthcoming joint efforts to complement case-control studies offer the potential for breakthroughs in paediatric cancer aetiologic research.",

keywords = "International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C), birth cohort, childhood cancer, environmental exposures, leukaemia, life style factors, recall bias, selection bias",

author = "{the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium} and Gabriella Tikellis and Terence Dwyer and Ora Paltiel and Phillips, {Gary S.} and Stanley Lemeshow and Jean Golding and Kate Northstone and Andy Boyd and Sjurdur Olsen and Akram Ghantous and Zdenko Herceg and Ward, {Mary H.} and H{\aa}berg, {Siri E.} and Per Magnus and J{\o}rn Olsen and Marin Str{\"o}m and Somdat Mahabir and Jones, {Rena R.} and Ponsonby, {Anne Louise} and Jacqueline Clavel and Charles, {Marie Aline} and Edwin Trevathan and Qian, {Zhengmin (Min)} and Maule, {Milena M.} and Xiu Qiu and Hong, {Yun Chul} and Silvia Brandelise and Eve Roman and Melissa Wake and He, {Jian Rong} and Linet, {Martha S.}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by: the NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)—USA; National Children{\textquoteright}s Study—USA; Tour de Cure— Australia; the Children{\textquoteright}s Cancer Centre Foundation—Australia; Bluey Day Foundation—Australia; Baxter Family Foundation—Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton—Australia; Private philanthropic donations—Australia; and Murdoch Children{\textquoteright}s Research Institution (M1300049), Australia. The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 092731) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel, provided support for data pooling of the JPS. This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262700, and Innovation Fund Denmark (grant no. 09-067124). Danish cancer cases were ascertained by the Danish Childhood Cancer Registry (Steering Committee: Catherine Rechnitzer, Peter Skov Wehner, Steen Rosth{\o}j, and Henrik Schr{\o}der). The work within the I4C carried out by the Epigenetics Group at IARC is supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) to Z.H. and A.G. and L{\textquoteright}Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France) to Z.H. Funding Information: This work was supported by: the NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)?USA; National Children's Study?USA; Tour de Cure?Australia; the Children's Cancer Centre Foundation?Australia; Bluey Day Foundation?Australia; Baxter Family Foundation?Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton?Australia; Private philanthropic donations?Australia; and Murdoch Children's Research Institution (M1300049), Australia. The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 092731) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel, provided support for data pooling of the JPS. This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262700, and Innovation Fund Denmark (grant no. 09-067124). Danish cancer cases were ascertained by the Danish Childhood Cancer Registry (Steering Committee: Catherine Rechnitzer, Peter Skov Wehner, Steen Rosth?j, and Henrik Schr?der). The work within the I4C carried out by the Epigenetics Group at IARC is supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) to Z.H. and A.G. and L?Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France) to Z.H. Funding Information: NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)—USA; National Children{\textquoteright}s Study—USA; Tour de Cure— Australia; The Children{\textquoteright}s Cancer Centre Foundation— Australia; Bluey Day Foundation—Australia; Baxter Family Foundation—Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton—Australia; Private philanthropic donations—Australia; Murdoch Children{\textquoteright}s Research Institution, Grant/Award Number: M1300049; The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, Grant/Award Number: 092731; The University of Bristol; The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel; The Research Council of Norway; Innovation Fund Denmark, Grant/Award Number: 09-067124; Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd",

year = "2018",

month = nov,

doi = "10.1111/ppe.12519",

language = "American English",

volume = "32",

pages = "568--583",

journal = "Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology",

issn = "0269-5022",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C)

T2 - A research platform of prospective cohorts for studying the aetiology of childhood cancers

AU - the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium

AU - Tikellis, Gabriella

AU - Dwyer, Terence

AU - Paltiel, Ora

AU - Phillips, Gary S.

AU - Lemeshow, Stanley

AU - Golding, Jean

AU - Northstone, Kate

AU - Boyd, Andy

AU - Olsen, Sjurdur

AU - Ghantous, Akram

AU - Herceg, Zdenko

AU - Ward, Mary H.

AU - Håberg, Siri E.

AU - Magnus, Per

AU - Olsen, Jørn

AU - Ström, Marin

AU - Mahabir, Somdat

AU - Jones, Rena R.

AU - Ponsonby, Anne Louise

AU - Clavel, Jacqueline

AU - Charles, Marie Aline

AU - Trevathan, Edwin

AU - Qian, Zhengmin (Min)

AU - Maule, Milena M.

AU - Qiu, Xiu

AU - Hong, Yun Chul

AU - Brandelise, Silvia

AU - Roman, Eve

AU - Wake, Melissa

AU - He, Jian Rong

AU - Linet, Martha S.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by: the NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)—USA; National Children’s Study—USA; Tour de Cure— Australia; the Children’s Cancer Centre Foundation—Australia; Bluey Day Foundation—Australia; Baxter Family Foundation—Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton—Australia; Private philanthropic donations—Australia; and Murdoch Children’s Research Institution (M1300049), Australia. The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 092731) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel, provided support for data pooling of the JPS. This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262700, and Innovation Fund Denmark (grant no. 09-067124). Danish cancer cases were ascertained by the Danish Childhood Cancer Registry (Steering Committee: Catherine Rechnitzer, Peter Skov Wehner, Steen Rosthøj, and Henrik Schrøder). The work within the I4C carried out by the Epigenetics Group at IARC is supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) to Z.H. and A.G. and L’Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France) to Z.H. Funding Information: This work was supported by: the NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)?USA; National Children's Study?USA; Tour de Cure?Australia; the Children's Cancer Centre Foundation?Australia; Bluey Day Foundation?Australia; Baxter Family Foundation?Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton?Australia; Private philanthropic donations?Australia; and Murdoch Children's Research Institution (M1300049), Australia. The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 092731) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel, provided support for data pooling of the JPS. This work was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262700, and Innovation Fund Denmark (grant no. 09-067124). Danish cancer cases were ascertained by the Danish Childhood Cancer Registry (Steering Committee: Catherine Rechnitzer, Peter Skov Wehner, Steen Rosth?j, and Henrik Schr?der). The work within the I4C carried out by the Epigenetics Group at IARC is supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) to Z.H. and A.G. and L?Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC, France) to Z.H. Funding Information: NIH intramural research programme (NCI, NICHD)—USA; National Children’s Study—USA; Tour de Cure— Australia; The Children’s Cancer Centre Foundation— Australia; Bluey Day Foundation—Australia; Baxter Family Foundation—Australia; The Rotary Club of North Brighton—Australia; Private philanthropic donations—Australia; Murdoch Children’s Research Institution, Grant/Award Number: M1300049; The UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, Grant/Award Number: 092731; The University of Bristol; The Maria Ascoli Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel; The Research Council of Norway; Innovation Fund Denmark, Grant/Award Number: 09-067124; Institut National du Cancer (INCa, Plan Cancer-EVA-INSERM, France) Publisher Copyright: © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

PY - 2018/11

Y1 - 2018/11

N2 - Background: Childhood cancer is a rare but leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Established risk factors, accounting for <10% of incidence, have been identified primarily from case-control studies. However, recall, selection and other potential biases impact interpretations particularly, for modest associations. A consortium of pregnancy and birth cohorts (I4C) was established to utilise prospective, pre-diagnostic exposure assessments and biological samples. Methods: Eligibility criteria, follow-up methods and identification of paediatric cancer cases are described for cohorts currently participating or planning future participation. Also described are exposure assessments, harmonisation methods, biological samples potentially available for I4C research, the role of the I4C data and biospecimen coordinating centres and statistical approaches used in the pooled analyses. Results: Currently, six cohorts recruited over six decades (1950s-2000s) contribute data on 388 120 mother-child pairs. Nine new cohorts from seven countries are anticipated to contribute data on 627 500 additional projected mother-child pairs within 5 years. Harmonised data currently includes over 20 “core” variables, with notable variability in mother/child characteristics within and across cohorts, reflecting in part, secular changes in pregnancy and birth characteristics over the decades. Conclusions: The I4C is the first cohort consortium to have published findings on paediatric cancer using harmonised variables across six pregnancy/birth cohorts. Projected increases in sample size, expanding sources of exposure data (eg, linkages to environmental and administrative databases), incorporation of biological measures to clarify exposures and underlying molecular mechanisms and forthcoming joint efforts to complement case-control studies offer the potential for breakthroughs in paediatric cancer aetiologic research.

AB - Background: Childhood cancer is a rare but leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Established risk factors, accounting for <10% of incidence, have been identified primarily from case-control studies. However, recall, selection and other potential biases impact interpretations particularly, for modest associations. A consortium of pregnancy and birth cohorts (I4C) was established to utilise prospective, pre-diagnostic exposure assessments and biological samples. Methods: Eligibility criteria, follow-up methods and identification of paediatric cancer cases are described for cohorts currently participating or planning future participation. Also described are exposure assessments, harmonisation methods, biological samples potentially available for I4C research, the role of the I4C data and biospecimen coordinating centres and statistical approaches used in the pooled analyses. Results: Currently, six cohorts recruited over six decades (1950s-2000s) contribute data on 388 120 mother-child pairs. Nine new cohorts from seven countries are anticipated to contribute data on 627 500 additional projected mother-child pairs within 5 years. Harmonised data currently includes over 20 “core” variables, with notable variability in mother/child characteristics within and across cohorts, reflecting in part, secular changes in pregnancy and birth characteristics over the decades. Conclusions: The I4C is the first cohort consortium to have published findings on paediatric cancer using harmonised variables across six pregnancy/birth cohorts. Projected increases in sample size, expanding sources of exposure data (eg, linkages to environmental and administrative databases), incorporation of biological measures to clarify exposures and underlying molecular mechanisms and forthcoming joint efforts to complement case-control studies offer the potential for breakthroughs in paediatric cancer aetiologic research.

KW - International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C)

KW - birth cohort

KW - childhood cancer

KW - environmental exposures

KW - leukaemia

KW - life style factors

KW - recall bias

KW - selection bias

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U2 - 10.1111/ppe.12519

DO - 10.1111/ppe.12519

M3 - Article

C2 - 30466188

AN - SCOPUS:85057033086

SN - 0269-5022

VL - 32

SP - 568

EP - 583

JO - Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology

JF - Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology

IS - 6

ER -

The International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C): A research platform of prospective cohorts for studying the aetiology of childhood cancers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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