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Susan Preston-Martin,¹ Janice M. Pogoda,² Beth A. Mueller,³ Flora Lubin,⁴ Baruch Modan,⁴ Elizabeth A. Holly,⁵ Graziella Filippini,⁶ Sylvaine Cordier,⁷ Raphael Peris-Bonet,⁸ Won Choi,⁹ Julian Little,¹⁰ and Annie Arslan¹¹

¹Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
²Statology, Truckee, California
³Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington
⁴Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel
⁵University of California, San Francisco, California
⁶Instituto Neurologico C. Besta, Milan, Italy
⁷INSERM, Villejuif, France
⁸IEDHC (CSIC-Universitat de Valencia), Valencia, Spain
⁹Manitoba Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation, Winnipeg, Canada
¹⁰University of Aberdeen Medical School, Aberdeen, Scotland
¹¹International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

Abstract

An international case-control study of primary pediatric brain tumors included interviews with mothers of cases diagnosed from 1976 to 1994 and mothers of population controls. Data are available on maternal vitamin use during pregnancy for 1051 cases and 1919 controls from eight geographic areas in North America, Europe, and Israel. Although risk estimates varied by study center, combined results suggest that maternal supplementation for two trimesters may decrease risk of brain tumor (odds ratio [OR] 0.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.5-0.9) , with a trend of less risk with longer duration of use (p trend=0.0007) . The greatest risk reduction was among children diagnosed under 5 years of age whose mothers used supplements during all three trimesters (OR 0.5, CI 0.3-0.8) . This effect did not vary by histology and was seen for supplementation during pregnancy rather than during the month before pregnancy or while breast feeding. These findings are largely driven by data from the United States, where most mothers took vitamins. The proportion of control mothers who took vitamins during pregnancy varied tremendously: from 3% in Israel and France, 21% in Italy, 33% in Canada, 52% in Spain and 86 to 92% at the three U.S. centers. The composition of the various multivitamin compounds taken also varied: the daily dose of vitamin C ranged from 0 to 600 mg, vitamin E ranged from 0 to 70 mg, vitamin A ranged from 0 to 30,000 IU, and folate ranged from 0 to 2000 µg. Mothers also took individual micronutrient supplements (e.g., vitamin C tablets) , but most mothers who took these also took multivitamins, making it impossible to determine potential independent effects of these micronutrients. -- Environ Health Perspect 106(Suppl 3) :887-892 (1998) .

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1998/Suppl-3/887-892preston-martin/abstract.html

Key words: brain neoplasms, childhood neoplasms, prenatal exposures, vitamin supplements