Consequences of maternal preconceptional exposure: solid cancers in offspring in the first generation

Preconceptional exposure of parents is considered as a potential carcinogenic factor for offspring. This paper presents comparative analysis of the incidence of solid cancers in the offspring of female workers of the Production Association "Mayak", subjected to prolonged preconceptional radiation exposure in their workplace. We carried out retrospective analysis in the group of offspring born in 1949-2004, including 4303 children from 2691 mothers. We traced the vital status and cancer incidence of offspring until December 31, 2014. The number of person-years of the follow-up cohort amounted to 138072.3. We analyzed the structure of solid cancers, "rough" and standardized by age and sex incidence rates. For comparative analysis of cancer incidence the method of indirect standardization was used, we applied regional and national standards, the module AMFIT of EPICURE software. The range of accumulated preconceptual doses of external gamma radiation of mothers was 0.01-5062.64 mGy with an average dose to the whole body 387.07 mGy, the dose to the gonads - 299.72 mGy. One third of mothers had accumulated preconceptual doses of internal alpha radiation to the gonads with the highest dose to ovaries of 102.52 mGy. For 65 years (from 1949 to 2014) 116 cases of solid malignant neoplasms were diagnosed in the cohort of offspring of female workers of Mayak PA. The average age of the first cancer cases at diagnosis was 46.6 years. Incidence rates of solid cancers diagnosed among the offspring of both sexes and thyroid cancer among women exceeded the rates of the national and regional statistics. There was a significant increase in thyroid cancer incidence among women older than 15 years in comparison with national data - 2.33 (1.00-4.51). Malignant brain tumors in the offspring of both sexes older than 15 years significantly exceeded the national standard: among men - 4.13 (1.64-8.37), among women - 3.58 (1.11-8.32) and the regional standard among men older than 15 years - 3.51 (1.39-7.10). Conclusion: We assume that maternal preconceptual radiation exposure plays a certain role in the development of oncopathology in children, which requires continued monitoring of the cohort of the Mayak Production staff offspring.