Washington, July 15 - A baby born to an older mother may have a slightly higher risk for many of the cancers that occur during childhood, according to a new study.

'Our finding shows that although the absolute risk is low, advancing maternal age may be a factor and explain why, after other factors are adjusted for, some children get cancer,' said Logan Spector, professor of paediatrics, University of Minnesota (U-M).

Currently, about one in 435 children under 15 years in the US gets cancer. They include leukaemia, lymphoma, central nervous system tumour, neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumour, bone cancer and soft tissue sarcoma.

For this population-based case-control study, Spector and colleagues used information from birth registry records in New York, Washington, Minnesota, Texas, and California.

The study included the records of 17,672 children in those states diagnosed with cancer at ages 0-14 years between 1980 and 2004 and 57,966 children not diagnosed with cancer.