More Evidence Supports Infectious Cause of Childhood Leukemia
Here we see another example of the theory that many of today’s chronic diseases (in which I classify cancer…) have multiple etiologies. Infectious origins have been suggested for many diseases, including heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. This study looks at the exposure of children in Scotland to servicemen during WWII and the subsequent increase in leukemia in this population. Leading a healthier lifestyle will lower your risk of many types of diseases as well as boost your immune system at the same time. Could it be that this boost in immune function is actually the route by which healthier lifestyles lower the risk of certain diseases?
Lancet 2001;357:858 UK investigators have documented a significant increase in childhood leukemia deaths in an isolated rural population exposed to servicemen stationed nearby during World War II. The findings support the theory, they say, that an infectious agent is responsible for childhood leukemia. Drs. Leo J. Kinlen and A. Balkwill, both of the University of Oxford, examined death registries for two complete cohorts from Orkney and Shetland, in Scotland. The first cohort consisted of all 8574 children up to age 14 living on those two islands in 1941, plus 3690 children born there between 1941 and 1945. The postwar cohort consisted of 6478 children born in Orkney and Shetland from 1946 to 1955. During the war, up to 60,000 servicemen were stationed on the two islands, with an additional 40,000 stationed aboard a ship near Orkney. Local residents numbered fewer than 45,000. The researchers documented a 3.6-fold increase in leukemia deaths in the wartime group, whereas in the postwar cohort, followed until 1970, there was no increased risk of leukemia compared with age-specific leukemia mortality rates for Scotland. Drs. Kinlen and Balkwill explain that there was a great deal of contact between local people and servicemen during wartime “through regular social events, servicemen buying local produce, and local people working for army camps.” In addition, they note, “outside populations consisted almost wholly of adults, which points to their relevance in the transmission of the infection underlying childhood leukemia.” “Childhood leukemia must be a rare response to the underlying infection,” they suggest, adding that the agent or agents involved have yet to be determined.