A new study in the current issue of Pediatrics reveals that folic acid fortification of foods could potentially reduce the number of incidences of Wilm’s tumor, the most common type of kidney cancer, and primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET), a type of brain cancer in children. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has mandated since 1998 that foods are to be fortified with folic acid based on evidence of previous studies that prenatal consumption of folic acid considerably decreases the number of incidences in neural tube defects in babies.
Kimberly J. Johnson, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis says: “Our study is the largest to date to show that folic acid fortification may also lower the incidence of certain types of childhood cancer in the United States.”
In their study, Johnson and her team assessed the incidence rate of childhood cancer pre- and post-mandated folic acid fortification.
Johnson declares:
“We found that Wilms’ tumor rates increased from 1986 to 1997 and decreased thereafter, which is an interesting finding since the downward change in the trend coincides exactly with folic acid fortification.
PNET rates increased from 1986 to 1993 and decreased thereafter. This change in the trend does not coincide exactly with folic acid fortification, but does coincide nicely with the 1992 recommendation for women of childbearing age to consume 400 micrograms of folic acid daily.”
The team obtained data from between 1986 to 2008 from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and the End Results Program (SEER), which lists data on cancer cases from all over the U.S. since 1973, involving 8,829 children with cancer from birth to the age of four.
Johnson declares: “Declines in Wilms’ tumors and PNETs in children were detected by multiple analyses of the data. Importantly, the reduced rates of Wilms’ tumors also were found in a smaller study conducted in Ontario, Canada, that was published in 2011. More research is needed to confirm these results and to rule out any other explanations.”
According to Johnson countries need to consider the possibility that fortification could potentially cause other harms, like new cancers or pre-cancerous lesions when deciding whether or not to fortify foods to decrease neural tube defects in newborns. However, in terms of this study Johnson concludes: “Here, we are showing that folic acid fortification does not appear to be increasing rates of childhood cancers, which is good news.”
Written By Petra Rattue