Projects we fund

Overview

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer, with about 400 children in the UK diagnosed every year. However, we don’t know enough about the causes of the disease. This means it is difficult to find ways to prevent children from developing ALL. We know that a person’s risk of developing diseases can be affected by both the genetic code in their DNA, and by their environment – the different things they experience throughout their life. Previous research has suggested that children who have received medical X-rays might have a higher risk of developing ALL. However, given that a lot of children need to have medical X-rays, it’s important that we find out whether genetics would impact their risk of developing cancer. Dr Xiaomei Ma thinks that a child’s genes may influence to what degree X-rays increase their risk of ALL. This would mean that some children are more likely than others to develop ALL after being exposed to X rays. Dr Ma and her colleagues plan to study this further in this project, funded by Children with Cancer UK. To do this, Dr Ma and her team will look at data from three large international studies of children with ALL. These studies combined involve more than 2,500 children, making this the largest project ever to investigate the link between genes, medical X-rays, and childhood ALL. The studies have collected information about medical X-rays that the children have had, as well as their DNA code. In these children, the team will be able to identify variations within the DNA code which might have affected how medical X-rays are linked to the risk of developing ALL.

Potential impact

This project will shed light on how a child’s genes and their environment work together to affect their risk of developing ALL. This could reveal new ways to identify children at risk of developing this cancer and inform potential preventative measures.