Study on the screening age of children with diagnosed cancer in either of the parents / 中华健康管理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To determine the screening and early detection reference age for individuals with family history of cancer in either one of the parents.@*Methods@#We examined the family history of 33 200 subjects who visited the Department of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Center and Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College between January 2008 and March 2018 for cancer screening and early detection. The age differences between the subjects in the research population were analyzed using an independent t-test. All statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows version 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).@*Results@#We documented 480 families in which fathers and one or more of their children were diagnosed with malignancies, attributing to 614 father-child pairs. We also documented 476 families with mothers and one or more of their children diagnosed with malignancies, attributing to 614 mother-child pairs. In total, we included 956 families in our study with a total of 505 sons and 723 daughters diagnosed with cancer during the study period. In the father-child group the average age at diagnosis for fathers, sons, and daughters were 66.6±10.8, 56.6±11.7, and 51.7±11.7 years, respectively. Sons and daughters were diagnosed with malignancy 10.0 and 14.9 years earlier than their fathers, respectively (P<0.001). Daughters developed malignancies approximately 5 years earlier than sons in the father-child group (P<0.001). In the mother-child group, the average age at diagnosis for mothers, sons, and daughters were 65.8±12.2, 57.8±12.2, and 52.3±12.4 years, respectively. Mothers were diagnosed with malignant disease 8 years later than their sons (P<0.001) and 13.5 years later than their daughters (P<0.001). Interestingly, daughters developed malignant diseases 5.5 years earlier than sons even in this group (P<0.001). Average age at diagnosis for subjects whose fathers and mothers developed malignancy before 50 years was 4.8 years and 4.4 years earlier than those whose fathers and mothers developed malignancy after 50 years old (P<0.05, P<0.001). Sons and daughters were diagnosed with lung cancer 9.3 and 12.6 years earlier than the fathers, and 10.2 and 13.6 years earlier than the mothers, respectively (P<0.001).The daughters in the mother-children group and the father-daughter group were diagnosed with breast cancer 10.5 and 11.1 years earlier than the mothers in the mother-child group (P<0.001).@*Conclusions@#Children develop malignancy earlier than their parents in families with cancer in parents and children. Hence, individuals with a family history of cancer in either of their parents should undergo interventions for cancer screening and early detection at a relatively earlier age compared to the initial screening age recommended by conventional screening guidelines for certain cancers.