• Project status: Active
Child smiling

We are playing a key role in the world's largest study into childhood cancer.

This innovative study possibly provides the greatest opportunity for finding a preventable cause of childhood cancer. We aim to examine associations between environmental exposures and the incidence of childhood cancers by pooling prospective population data from one million pregnant mothers and their babies.

This innovative study possibly provides the greatest opportunity for finding a preventable cause of childhood cancer. We aim to examine associations between environmental exposures and the incidence of childhood cancers by pooling prospective...

This innovative study possibly provides the greatest opportunity for finding a preventable cause of childhood cancer. We aim to examine associations between environmental exposures and the incidence of childhood cancers by pooling prospective population data from one million pregnant mothers and their babies.

Overview

Our research team has had a major role in the study concept and planning and is functioning as the I4C International Data Coordinating Centre. Data is being pooled and analysed to the examine environmental and genetic factors that differ between those children who get cancer and those who don't.

How we started

The Director of the I4C International Coordinating Centre, Professor Terry Dwyer, was tasked in 2004 with leading an evaluation of whether the National Children's Study (NCS), a childhood cohort of 100,000 participants, would be sufficiently sized to include cancer as a workable outcome.

These discussions led to the conclusion that the NCS alone would not have sufficient power to examine childhood cancers, given their rarity. However, it was agreed that a collaboration of existing and planned large cohorts may provide the power to get prospective evidence on the potential causes of childhood cancers.

We held a workshop on September 28-29, 2005, in Rockville, MD, USA, to discuss the development of an international alliance of longitudinal studies of children. Research teams from 15 countries spanning four continents, representing approximately 700,000 children, agreed to a collaboration leading to the establishment of the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C).

Our meetings

14th International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C) meeting

Professor Terence Dwyer chaired the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C) annual meeting on the 25th and 26th of September 2023 at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France.
 
The meeting discussed how the restrictions introduced by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe have restricted opportunities for data sharing using data originating in EU countries. While the consortium finds ways to overcome this problem, the testing of hypotheses on preventable causes of childhood cancer will slow.
 
Nonetheless, considerable progress has been made in the last year. The meeting heard that work on the association of maternal infection during pregnancy had shown considerable promise. Infections, of the genitourinary (urinary) tract in particular, were found to be associated in our pooled cohort data. While this does not confirm a causal association, it does suggest that future work in this area is worth prioritising.
 
A study already funded by the Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation in the UK to examine the presence of viral DNA in cord blood from infants in the Norwegian cohort (MOBA) of approximately 100,000 infants, is hoped to throw further light on this potentially important pathway.

I4C Annual Meeting 2023 Group photo 
Watch the 2023 I4C sessions

13th International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C) meeting

We held two live webinars on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th February 2022. Sessions included:

  • Recent findings from I4C – Maternal infection and risk of childhood leukemia - presented by Jianrong (Jeff) He.
  • Mediation analysis in life-course studies – presented by Bianca de Stavola.
  • Advances in measuring ETV6-RUNX1 translocations in cord blood – presented by Arndt Borkhardt.
  • Recent findings from I4C – Maternal infection and risk of childhood leukemia - presented by Jianrong (Jeff) He.
  • Recent findings in epigenetics on the aetiology of childhood leukemia – presented by Joseph Wiemels.
  • Adv A strategy for investigating the causes of childhood cancer in China – presented by Yawei Zhang.

12th International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C) meeting 2020/2021

Held online in February 2021 due to the impact of COVID-19.

Supporting agencies

child in hospital

Tomorrow's cures need your donations today

Donate now