Autism in children and adolescents with cancer.
BACKGROUND
The causes of autistic disorders (AD) are not known. Abnormalities of tumor suppressor genes have suggested that these genes may be important to the development of autism in some cases, and result in an increased risk of developing cancer or other neoplasms. We explore possible associations between AD and childhood cancer.


METHODS
We reviewed our institutional pediatric cancer database for all new cancer diagnoses 1997-2007. Medical records from patients older than 2 years at last visit were reviewed for a diagnosis of AD. The prevalence of AD was estimated for neoplasms overall and for specific tumor types, and compared with that in the general pediatric population.


RESULTS
Of 702 eligible patients, 7 (1%; 95% CI: (0.4%, 2.04%)) were labeled as AD, not different than the prevalence of AD in North Carolina's general population (0.65%, P = 0.35). Cancer diagnoses for these 7 children were acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n = 1), acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (n = 2), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 1), Hodgkin Disease (n = 1), brain tumor (n = 1), osteogenic sarcoma (n = 1).


CONCLUSIONS
These data do not suggest that there is a high concordance between AD and childhood cancer. However, studies of large rigorously characterized AD cohorts will be needed to definitively address this issue.
Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7236, USA. jblat@med.unc.edu
Julie
J
Blatt
Allison M
AM
Deal
Gary
G
Mesibov
D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate