title: Offspring sex ratio and gonadal irradiation in the British Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.
abstract: We investigated offspring sex ratio among 6232 offspring born to 3218 survivors of childhood cancer in relation to therapeutic irradiation, and pooled our data with those from two other large-scale studies giving a total of 9685 offspring. Exposure to high-dose gonadal irradiation was not associated with a significant alteration in offspring sex ratio compared to low doses (men: P=0.58, women: P=0.66). There was also no evidence that the ratio varied with time since cancer diagnosis when comparing survivors treated with radiotherapy vs those without (men: P=0.51; women: P=0.46). This, the largest study to date, finds no evidence that exposure to radiation affects the offspring sex ratio among survivors of childhood cancer.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Childhood Cancer Survivor Studies, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. r.c.reulen@bham.ac.uk
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Reulen
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Zeegers
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Lancashire
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hawkins
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012744:Sex Ratio; D016019:Survival Analysis; D017741:Survivors; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology