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ROLE OF PARENTAL SMOKING AND ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE EXPOSURE IN CHILDHOOD CANCER: A STUDY USING HAIR COTININE ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONNAIRES
  • +4
  • Adil Guzel,
  • Nurdan Tacyildiz,
  • Filiz Bakar Ates,
  • Derya Ozyoruk,
  • Aybuke Celik,
  • Handan Dincaslan,
  • Emel Cabi Unal
Adil Guzel
Ankara Universitesi Tip Fakultesi

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Nurdan Tacyildiz
Ankara Universitesi Tip Fakultesi
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Filiz Bakar Ates
Ankara Universitesi Eczacilik Fakultesi
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Derya Ozyoruk
Ankara Sehir Hastanesi Cocuk Hastanesi
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Aybuke Celik
Ankara Universitesi Eczacilik Fakultesi
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Handan Dincaslan
Ankara Universitesi Tip Fakultesi
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Emel Cabi Unal
Ankara Universitesi Tip Fakultesi
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Abstract

OBJECTIVES In the etiology of childhood cancers, many genetic and environmental factors play a role. One of these factors is cigarette smoking and the main source of tobacco smoke exposure of children is parental smoking. However, establishing a causal relationship between parental smoking and childhood cancers has proven challenging due to difficulties in accurately detecting tobacco smoke exposure METHODS To address this issue, we used hair cotinine analysis and a questionnaire to get information about tobacco smoke exposures of pediatric cancer patients and healthy children. 104 pediatric cancer patients and 99 healthy children participated in our study. Parental smoking behaviours (pre-conceptional, during pregnancy and current smoking) and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposures of children are compared. RESULTS We have found no differences between two groups by means of maternal smoking behaviours. However, the rates of paternal pre-conceptional smoking and smoking during pregnancy were significantly low in cancer patients (p<0,05). These data suggests that social desirability bias among fathers of cancer patients may have contributed to this discrepancy. According to questionnaire cancer patients had significantly lower ETS exposures than healthy children (p<0,05). However, ETS exposure assessment through cotinine analysis demonstrated that cancer patients had higher exposure to ETS compared to healthy children (p<0.001). CONCLUSION Our findings provide evidence supporting the potential role of smoking as a risk factor for childhood cancers. This study also revealed that questionnaires could cause biases. We suggest that cotinine analysis along with validated questionnaires can be used to prevent biases in studies of tobacco smoke in the etiology of childhood cancers.
25 Oct 2023Submission Checks Completed
25 Oct 2023Assigned to Editor
25 Oct 2023Submitted to Pediatric Blood & Cancer
26 Oct 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
27 Oct 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
13 Nov 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
24 Jan 20242nd Revision Received
24 Jan 2024Submission Checks Completed
24 Jan 2024Assigned to Editor
24 Jan 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
25 Jan 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned
30 Jan 2024Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
19 Mar 20243rd Revision Received
20 Mar 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned
27 Mar 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
27 Mar 2024Editorial Decision: Accept