 |  |  | | | SCIENTISTS PROVIDE KEY INSIGHT INTO CHILDHOOD LEUKAEMIA | | | | |
| |  Professor Mel Greaves.
Release Date: 28th June 2002
1% of all new-born children have a non-inherited gene abnormality with the potential to cause childhood leukaemia, LRF researchers have revealed in research published this month. However, only one in hundred of children with these 'leukaemic genes' will go onto develop the disease.
The team at the LRF Centre for Cell and Molecular Biology, Institute of Cancer Research (London), had previously shown that these gene abnormalities - TEL-AML1 and AML1-ETO - arise before birth, during development of the foetus. But it was not clear precisely what percentage of these children are likely go onto develop full-blown leukaemia.
The work - published in this month's American journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science - now confirms this figure to be 1%.
Professor Mel Greaves, who leads the research, said his team had screened 567 babies for TEL-AML1 and 493 babies for AML1-ET0. "Of the 567 samples screened for TEL-AML1, six were found to be positive," he explained. "By contrast, only one of the 493 samples screened for AML1-ETO was positive."
These figures show that these genes are present in the blood of new born babies at a frequency that is 100-fold greater than the risk of developing the corresponding leukaemia (see notes for editor).
They provide further evidence that that some second event after birth is critical for a child to develop full-blown leukaemia. Professor Greaves has proposed that this essential post-natal event involves an abnormal response to infection in otherwise healthy children. This idea forms one of the key causal hypotheses currently being scrutinised by the UK National Children's Cancer Study, along with other candidate exposures such as radiation and chemicals.
The importance of this work lies in the possibility of leukaemia prevention. While it is unlikely that doctors will be able to stop the pre-natal event, some form of vaccination in infancy might well prevent leukaemia occurring.
 | Notes for editors |
 | The gene abnormality TEL-AML1 is typically associated with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). The chances of children found to have this gene at birth (1 in 100) is 100 times greater than the cumulative incidence of contracting this form of leukaemia, 1 in 10,000. |
| The gene abnormality AML1-ETO is associated with acute myeloid leukaemia AML. The chances of a child being born with this gene (around 1 in 500 -800) is 100 times greater than the cumulative incidence of developing AML, which is 1 in 80,000. |
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