Cleft Lip and Palate in Family Members of Cancer Survivors

Abstract

The presence of cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) in family members of cancer patients was investigated. An epidemiological questionnaire including family history of cancer and congenital oral cleft malformations was administered to 168 cancer survivors and a population-based sample of 170 healthy subjects. In the control group, 1.2% reported a family member with CL/P; among cancer survivors the figure was 4.2% (odds ratio: 3.7; 95% confidence interval: 0.75–17.8; p = .07). Among cancer survivors with a family member with CL/P, there was an apparent excess of testicular cancer and melanoma in comparison with the cancer survivors with no family history of CL/P. These preliminary results suggest a common etiologic background for cancer and CL/P.

Risk of nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate in relatives of women with breast cancer

“…The underlying concept is that the same genes can act in normal and also malignant development [Narod et al, 1997;Nishi et al, 2000;Windham et al, 2004;Bille et al, 2005;Vieira et al, 2012]. In the last years, epidemiological studies have assessed the relationship between cancer and NSCL/P in different populations [Texas, USA, Steinwachs et al, 2000;Denmark, Zhu et al, 2002;Bille et al, 2005; Pittsburgh, USA, Menezes et al, 2002;Taioli et al, 2010;India, Jindal and Vieira, 2012;Latvia, Vieira et al, 2012;and Turkey, Yildirim et al, 2012].…”

Risk of leukemia in first degree relatives of patients with nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate

“…Recently, we evaluated the risk of NSCL/P in relatives of women with breast cancer in the Brazilian population and found no association between the two conditions. 5,10 Another study 11 showed that among cancer survivors with a family member with NSCL/P, there was an apparent excess of testicular cancer and melanoma in comparison with the cancer survivors with no family history of NSCL/P. These preliminary results suggest a common etiologic background for cancer and NSCL/P.…”

8 Epidemiology of Cleft Lip and Palate

“…Several studies from different countries (USA, Latvia, Denmark, and Brazil) have identified an association between cleft palate and cancer [90][91][92][93][94][95]. The first epidemiological studies addressed the presence of cancer in cleft lip/palate subjects and their families.…”

“…Such studies are limited by the fact that the genetic defect is still a rare event, and the number of cancer cases necessary to address the problem would be extremely large. A study conducted on family members of cancer patients (Taioli et al [95]) involved an epidemiological questionnaire including family history of cancer and congenital oral cleft malformations that was administered to 168 cancer survivors and a population-based sample of 170 healthy subjects. In the control group, 1.2% reported a family member with CL/P; among cancer survivors, the figure was 4.2% (odds ratio: 3.7; 95% confidence interval: 0.75-17.8; p = .07).…”