Article

A population-based study of cancer risk in twins: relationships to birth order and sexes of the twin pair.

Epidemiological Monitoring Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
International Journal of Cancer (impact factor: 5.44). 09/1996; 67(4):472-8. DOI:10.1002/(SICI)1097-0215(19960807)67:4<472::AID-IJC2>3.0.CO;2-P pp.472-8
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT One thousand and sixty-three twins with cancer whose co-twin was born alive were identified among patients born since September 1939 with cancers incident in England and Wales during 1971-1984 at childhood and young adult ages. Site-specific risks of cancer were analysed in relation to birth order within the twinship and sexes of the twin pair, using adjusted national birth data to give control distributions of these variables. Risk of leukaemia was increased in first-born twins, risk of testicular cancer was increased in second-born twins with female co-twins but decreased in second-born twins with male co-twins and lung cancer risk was increased in first-born twins with same-sex co-twins. Cutaneous melanoma risk was increased in persons with opposite-sex co-twins, nervous system cancer risk was increased in females with opposite-sex co-twins and Hodgkin's disease risk was increased in persons with same-sex co-twins. For most of the findings, no previous comparable analyses are available, so interpretation of the results must be provisional until the analyses can be repeated on other data. The result for leukaemia would accord with previous suggestions that leukaemia may be of prenatal origin and may sometimes lead to intrauterine death. The Hodgkin's disease result would fit with theories of an infectious aetiology, and this view is strengthened by reanalysis of previous data on paralytic poliomyelitis in twins, which show a pattern similar to that for the Hodgkin's disease patients. Cancer risk in relation to birth order and sex of twins can give novel, objective data relating to prenatal and infectious disease aetiology of cancers.

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    ABSTRACT: Approximately 3-15% of all malignant melanomas (MM) are familial cases. MM is a highly heterogeneous tumour type from a genetic perspective. Pedigrees with disease confined to a single generation of siblings or MM occurring among second- or third-degree relatives suggest multifactorial polygenic inheritance. However, not infrequently, within large families aggregations of MM are consistent with autosomal dominant inheritance, suggesting a hereditary syndrome caused by germline alterations of a single gene. Several different genes are involved in the development of MM. However, even when taken together they are responsible for less than 20% of all MM cases. It is thus necessary to perform association studies focused on genetic markers that could be used in identifying patients with a high risk of MM. Evaluation of aggregations of MM and other malignancies, like breast cancer, could be essential in identifying relatives of MM probands being at high risk of developing malignancies other than MM. The ultimate goal is to apply in these cases prevention recommendations and surveillance protocols to reduce the disease risk.
    Hereditary Cancer in Clinical Practice 01/2004; 2(3):123-9. · 1.68 Impact Factor
Data provided are for informational purposes only. Although carefully collected, accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The impact factor represents a rough estimation of the journal's impact factor and does not reflect the actual current impact factor. Publisher conditions are provided by RoMEO. Differing provisions from the publisher's actual policy or licence agreement may be applicable.

Keywords

birth order
 
Cancer risk
 
cancers incident
 
Cutaneous melanoma risk
 
female co-twins
 
first-born twins
 
Hodgkin's disease patients
 
Hodgkin's disease risk
 
lung cancer risk
 
male co-twins
 
national birth data
 
nervous system cancer risk
 
objective data
 
opposite-sex co-twins
 
previous comparable analyses
 
previous data
 
same-sex co-twins
 
second-born twins
 
testicular cancer
 
twin pair
 

A J Swerdlow