Increased incidence of inguinal hernia in offspring of female survivors of childhood central nervous system tumors

Female survivors of childhood central nervous system (CNS) tumors experience an increased risk of infertility and various pregnancy complications. We aimed to explore whether the incidence of inguinal hernia could be higher in offspring of female CNS tumor survivors as compared to the general population. Girls who were younger than 15 years of age and diagnosed with CNS tumors between 1958 and 2013 were identified from the Swedish Cancer Registry. By linking with the Swedish Medical Birth Registry, we identified 580 children who were born to mothers of CNS tumor survivors. After 9,662 person-years of follow-up, 23 of them were diagnosed with inguinal hernia, giving an incidence rate (IR) of 2.4 per 1,000 person-years, whereas the IR was 1.2 for the matched controls. Cox regression analysis was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) of inguinal hernia. After adjusting for some confounding factors, the incidence of inguinal hernia was significantly increased with an HR of 1.92 (95%CI 1.08-3.41). The association was predominant in offspring whose mothers were diagnosed with CNS tumors at the age of 10 and older, and with CNS tumors located in the brain.