|  | | |  Duncan Moon
Release Date: 15th February 2003
Leukaemia patient Duncan Moon, aged 5, from Maidstone stands in a sea of “painted” chromosomes to mark the 10th anniversary of Leukaemia Research Fund/UK Cancer Cytogenetics Group Karyotype Database. This database, at the University of Southampton, has collected more than 4,500 karyotypes (information on the chromosomal make-up of the leukaemia cells) from children with acute leukaemia.
Chromosomes are “painted” to make it easier to spot where different chromosomes have broken and rejoined to create new hybrid cancer-causing genes, which hold the key to the causes of this life-threatening disease. The technique for “painting” chromosomes in this way is called FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization). Cytogenetics and FISH have led to the finding of more than 50 different genetic abnormalities in children with leukaemia, providing doctors with essential information about likely prognosis and the best course of treatment.
“These results are having a major impact on the treatment of children with leukaemia,” said LRF Scientific Director, Dr David Grant. “They are helping us to shape treatment by identifying children with a poorer prognosis who may need the most aggressive treatment early on, and those who we may be able to treat more gently.” LRF researchers working with state-of-the-art FISH techniques believe their work will identify more important genetic abnormalities, improving diagnosis and providing doctors with a better choice of treatment.
Duncan is in his final year of three years of treatment at Surrey Marsden Hospital. “We have nothing but praise for the nursing staff there and for those scientists across the world involved in research which has given Duncan a much better chance of survival,” said Duncan’s father Chris Moon. “Duncan is not out of the woods yet, but to see his transformation from sick child to an apparently healthy boy, running around and doing all the things five year-olds do has been truly inspiring.”
About 500 children a year in the UK develop leukaemia and 100 get lymphoma, between them accounting for about half of all UK childhood cancers. The most common leukaemia in children is acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) for which survival is now about 80%. This childhood illness peaks in incidence in children aged 2-5 years. The Leukaemia Research Fund supports major research programmes finding out what causes leukaemia in children and how to improve its treatment. The charity recently committed £2 million to Bristol and Newcastle researchers involved in a major study to investigate the significance of the small numbers of leukaemia cells that sometimes survive chemotherapy. Its scientists are also investigating how commonly used anti-cancer drugs interact with the patient’s metabolism, because they believe this has a significant impact on long term survival.
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