Metabolic differences among newborns born to mothers with a history of leukemia or lymphoma

Abstract

Background

Leukemia and lymphoma are cancers affecting children, adolescents, and young adults and may affect reproductive outcomes and maternal metabolism. We evaluated for metabolic changes in newborns of mothers with a history of these cancers.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted on California births from 2007 to 2011 with linked maternal hospital discharge records, birth certificate, and newborn screening metabolites. History of leukemia or lymphoma was determined using ICD-9-CM codes from hospital discharge data and newborn metabolite data from the newborn screening program.

Results

A total of 2,068,038 women without cancer history and 906 with history of leukemia or lymphoma were included. After adjusting for differences in maternal age, infant sex, age at metabolite collection, gestational age, and birthweight, among newborns born to women with history of leukemia/lymphoma, several acylcarnitines were significantly (p < .001 – based on Bonferroni correction for multiple testing) higher compared to newborns of mothers without cancer history: C3-DC (mean difference (MD) = 0.006), C5-DC (MD = 0.009), C8:1 (MD = 0.008), C14 (MD = 0.010), and C16:1 (MD = 0.011), whereas citrulline levels were significantly lower (MD = −0.581) among newborns born to mothers with history of leukemia or lymphoma compared to newborns of mothers without a history of cancer.

Conclusion

The varied metabolite levels suggest history of leukemia or lymphoma has metabolic impact on newborn offspring, which may have implications for future metabolic consequences such as necrotizing enterocolitis and urea cycle enzyme disorders in children born to mothers with a history of leukemia or lymphoma.

Keywords:

• Leukemia
• lymphoma
• metabolite
• newborn
• amino acid
• acylcarnitines

Disclosure statement

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Kelli Ryckman and Dr. Sonia Anand received the grant during the conduct of the study. Additionally, Dr. Ryckman has a patent for Serum Screening and Lipid Markers Predicting Preterm Birth pending. All other authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the National Cancer Institute (P30 CA086862-18S6).