Childhood cancer survivors and their offspring studied through a postal survey of general practitioners: preliminary results.

A postal survey is being carried out among the general practitioners of survivors of childhood cancer born before 1963 and treated in Britain. The response rate is currently about 88%. Based on a preliminary analysis of 2001 questionnaires it emerged that fewer childhood cancer survivors married than was expected from the general population. The number of live births to female survivors was 57% of that expected from general population rates. The frequency of congenital malformations among the offspring was not in excess of that expected on the basis of large population based surveillance rates and the number of malignant tumours observed was broadly similar to that expected from general population rates, although the results were based on very small numbers. The present data, taken together with other studies of the offspring of cancer survivors, provides grounds for optimism with regard to the inherited component of childhood cancer and the effects of radiotherapy and cytotoxic drugs on germ cell mutation.