People born with major birth defects face a 74 percent increased cancer risk compared to those with no birth defects, according to a recent study published in The British Medical Journal.
Researchers analyzed data on 62,295 cancer patients up to age 46 from nationwide health registries across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and compared them to a control group of 724,542. The odds ratio for people born with major birth defects compared to those without was 1.74. People with chromosomal anomalies faced a more significant increase in risk, with an odds ratio of 5.53 compared to those with nonchromosomal defects, where the odds ratio was 1.54.
Down syndrome was linked to the highest overall relative cancer risk. Out of those with nonchromosomal birth defects, people with genetic syndromes/microdeletions had the highest relative risks of cancer. Cancers of urinary organs posed the highest relative risks among those with nonchromosomal defects. Many structural birth defects, such as those of the eye, nervous system and urinary organs were linked to later cancer in the same region as the defect.
Researchers observed a heightened cancer risk across all age groups among those with a birth defect, though the odd ratios decreased with age.