Researchers have found that people born with a rare abnormality of their chromosomes have a 2,700-fold increased risk of a rare childhood leukemia. In this abnormality, two specific chromosomes are fused together but become prone to catastrophic shattering.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL, is the most common childhood cancer. Scientists previously found that a small subset of ALL patients have repeated sections of chromosome 21 in the genomes of their leukemia cells. This form of ALL -- iAMP21 ALL -- requires more intensive treatment than many other types of ALL. The scientists used modern DNA analysis methods to reconstruct the sequence of genetic events that lead to iAMP21 ALL.
Leukemia caused by chromosome catastrophe