NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who take vitamin and mineral pills before and during pregnancy may reduce the risk that their baby will develop a cancer of the nervous system called neuroblastoma, according to researchers.

Neuroblastomas are highly malignant tumors that arise in nervous system tissue and are usually diagnosed in infants or young children. The tumors spread rapidly to the lymph nodes, liver, lung and bone.

"In the United States, neuroblastoma has an incidence of 9.1 per million children under the age of 15 years and is the most common tumor in infants," Andrew F. Olshan of the Children's Oncology Group in Arcadia, California, and colleagues note in their report.

Many studies have shown that regular vitamin use by moms-to-be can reduce the risk of birth defects such as spina bifida and cleft palate. One previous study also suggested that women who use vitamins while pregnant may reduce their child's risk of developing neuroblastoma.

To investigate, Olshan and colleagues interviewed 538 women, each with a child who developed neuroblastoma before the age of 19, about their vitamin and mineral use. The women were compared with 504 mothers whose children did not have the disease.

"Daily vitamin and mineral use in the month before pregnancy and in each trimester was associated with a 30% to 40% reduction in the risk of neuroblastoma," the authors write in the September issue of the journal Epidemiology.

"We were unable to isolate the effects of specific vitamins or minerals," they add.

The researchers are calling for more research on the relationship between a pregnant woman's vitamin use and her child's neuroblastoma risk.

SOURCE: Epidemiology 2002;13:575-580.

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