By way of a particular study of leukemia cells from 200 kids, a study group has discovered two new varieties of childhood leukemia.
Making use of next generation sequencing technology or NGS, the researchers were in a position to learn more about the genome of cancer cells, which is how they found out about the new varieties of cancer.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is an infrequent disease, however it is probably the most common form of cancer among children. At present the therapy may be very successful, but requires heavy interventions at the threat of inflicting many adverse events. There is consequently a need to distinguish between unique varieties of acute lymphoblastic leukemia to be able to know the right treatment option in line with the severity of each case, and to detect relapse.
According to the lead researcher ”Like all types of cancer, childhood leukemia is caused by genetic mutations in normal cells, which are then transformed into cancer cells. Finding the critical mutations in the diseased cells is an important condition for understanding the mechanisms of the disease and ultimately discovering new therapies
Through the new sequencing approach, the researchers were ready to compare the changes that arise in cancer cells in greater element, which is how they discovered the two new varieties of childhood leukemia. According to the project manager of the study, One type occurs when a gene called DUX4, which is normally inactive in blood cells, becomes activated when the gene is relocated in the genome. The second type resembles a previously known type of childhood leukemia, but is caused by other genetic mutations
Previous studies of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia have proven that there are six important groups of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children. The found out two new forms, collectively representing about 10 per cent of all childhood leukemia, can now be added to those groups. The project manager concludes, Over the last few years, our study team has worked tremendously intensely on this gain knowledge of, which do not need been possible without collaboration with a few different researchers at Lund college, Skane college clinic, and research corporations in Germany
They hope that the findings will result in extended prognosis and monitoring of childhood leukemia, and finally new forms of therapy. The team’s findings are released within the journal Nature Communications. The two new types of leukemia are called “DUX4-rearranged” and “ETV6/RUNX1-like.”