Liu Q, Adami HO, Reichenberg A, et al. - Persons with intellectual disability (ID) carry an elevated risk of any cancer, as well as of several specific cancer types, and therefore require extended surveillance and early intervention for cancer.

• A population-based cohort study of more than 3.5 million Swedish children, born from 1974 to 2013, was performed to determine the link between ID and cancer.

• The risk for any cancer, as well as for several specific cancer types (including cancers of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, pancreas, uterus, kidney, central nervous system, and other or unspecified sites, as well as acute lymphoid leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia), was found to be increased in the presence of ID.

• No alteration in cancer risk was seen by ID severity or gender but cancer risk was higher for syndromic ID.