INTERACTION BETWEEN THE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO DEVELOP ACUTE LEUKEMIA IN CHILDREN AND PATERNAL SMOKING

Background and Aims. It has been suggested that acute leukemia (AL) can be the result of the interaction between inherited susceptibility to the disease and exposure to different carcinogenic factors. The present study evaluates the interaction between the susceptibility to develop acute leukemia and paternal smoking as a risk factor. Methods. A Case-control study with selection by the susceptibility was realized; we had two types of cases and controls: 47 children with Down syndrome (DS) and AL who are known to be highly susceptible to develop AL, 423 children with AL without DS from the same population-base, a group of 207 children with DS without AL, and another group of children neither AL nor DS. The interaction was assessed with logistic regression. The results were adjusted by different variables. In our data there was not interaction between susceptibility for developing AL and paternal smoking. Results. The paternal smoking prior to the conception had an odds ratio (OR) of 5.9 (95% confidence int...