HIGH PARENTAL AGE IS ASSOCIATED WITH SPORADIC HEREDITARY RETINOBLASTOMA - THE DUTCH RETINOBLASTOMA REGISTER 1862-1994

We wished to determine the influence of parental age at the birth of a retinoblastoma patient on the risk of sporadic hereditary retinoblast oma. The parental age at birth of 941 patients of the Dutch retinoblas toma register (1862-1994) was identified and compared between sporadic hereditary and nonhereditary patients. In a subcohort (1936-1994), a comparison was made with parental age at birth in the general populati on, as obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics. Missing birth d ates of the parents of retinoblastoma patients were traced with the he lp of the municipal registries and the Central Bureau of Genealogy. Th e mean paternal age was 10.7 months higher and the mean maternal age w as 11.0 months higher in the sporadic hereditary retinoblastoma patien ts than in parents of nonhereditary patients. In the subcohort, the me an paternal and maternal ages of sporadic hereditary patients were als o higher (12.4 and 11.5 months, respectively) than those of the genera l population. All differences were statistically significant. This stu dy shows that a high parental age is associated with an enhanced risk of sporadic hereditary retinoblastoma.