Parental age and Neurofibromatosis Type 1: a report from the NF1 Patient Registry Initiative

One of the potential etiologies for non-familial Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is increasing parental age. We sought to evaluate recent evidence for parental age effects in NF1 in a large study. Individuals with NF1 and a comparison group from the U.S. general population born between 1994 and 2012 were ascertained from the NF1 Patient Registry Initiative (NPRI) and the National Center for Vital Statistics, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis was employed to identify differences between familial NF1, non-familial NF1, and U.S. population subjects in the mean parental ages at the time of the birth of offspring in each group. In addition, we also evaluated the effect of parental age on NF1 offspring with and without a pediatric brain tumor history. A total of 313 subjects from the NPRI (including 99 brain tumor cases) matched by birth year at a 1:3 ratio to U.S. general population births (n = 939) were included. Compared to the U.S. general population and familial NF1 cases, the mean paternal age for non-familial NF1 cases was 4.34 years (95 % CI 3.23–5.46, p ≤ 0.0001) and 3.39 years (95 % CI 1.57–5.20, p ≤ 0.0001) older, respectively, after adjusting for birth year. A similar pattern was observed for maternal age. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean maternal or paternal ages between NF1 offspring with and without a pediatric brain tumor. In conclusion, these data support a parental age effect for non-familial NF1 cases, but not for pediatric brain tumors in NF1.