National study to unravel triggers for childhood leukaemia
A national study is investigating diet, chemical exposure and genetic factors in a new bid to unravel the causes of childhood leukaemia.
Study leader Professor Bruce Armstrong said this major project will further investigate some clues thrown up by previous research, including the role of folate in the diet.
"While we have some strong leads, the causes of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the commonest childhood cancer are largely unknown," he said.
"We do know that there is rarely a simple cause to a disease such as this and our study will be the first internationally to look at all these factors together."
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia affects one in every 2000 children in Australia.
"While the study will involve families of children with leukaemia, we also need the help of a big group of families with healthy children to act as a comparison.
"This project is different from many in that it relies on the involvement of many people who aren't directly affected by this disease."
Over the coming months, hundreds of homes around Australia will be phoned at random to find families with healthy children aged under 15 who are willing to participate in the research.
Parents in the comparison group will be asked to fill in questionnaires about jobs they have done, their diet and exposure to particular chemicals. Parents and children will be asked for painless swabs of the inside of the cheek so that researchers can compare the way food and chemicals are dealt with (metabolised) in the body.
"This is not a case where we want people to actively volunteer for this research. For our study to be statistically sound, we need to make sure that we have a true random sample and that is best achieved by a telephone campaign," Professor Armstrong said.
"We want to be sure that families are aware of the importance of this research before they get that phone call - that way we hope they are more likely to give of their time."
The study is being funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council. It is headquartered at Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and run in collaboration with children's hospitals and research centres across Australia.
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