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Extensive research over the past 50 years has resulted in significant improvements in survival for patients diagnosed with leukemia. Despite this, a subgroup of patients harboring high-risk genetic alterations still suffer from poor outcomes. There is a desperate need for new treatments to improve survival, yet consistent failure exists in the translation of in vitro drug development to clinical application.
Siblings of children with cancer have been shown to experience disruption in multiple domains including family, school, and friendships. Existing literature on siblings' experiences focuses on older children or on a broad range of ages.
Children receiving treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are at high risk of invasive fungal disease (IFD). Evidence from pediatric studies support the efficacy of antifungal prophylaxis in reducing the burden of IFD in children receiving therapy for AML, yet existing antifungal agents have specific limitations and comparative data to inform the optimal prophylactic approach are lacking.
Event-free survival considers other adverse events in addition to mortality. It therefore provides a more complete understanding of the effectiveness and consequences of treatment than standard survival measures, but is rarely reported at the population level for childhood cancer.
Children with Down syndrome (DS) are at increased risk of developing haematological malignancies, in particular acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The microenvironment established by abnormal haematopoiesis driven by trisomy 21 is compounded by additional genetic and epigenetic changes that can drive leukaemogenesis in patients with DS.
Copy number alterations (CNAs), resulting from the gain or loss of genetic material from as little as 50 base pairs or as big as entire chromosome(s), have been associated with many congenital diseases, de novo syndromes and cancer. It is established that CNAs disturb the dosage of genomic regions including enhancers/promoters, long non-coding RNA and gene(s) among others, ultimately leading to an altered balance of key cellular functions.
Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) therapy is accompanied by treatment-related toxicities (TRTs) and impaired quality of life. In Australia and New Zealand, children with ALL are treated with either Children's Oncology Group (COG) or international Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster (iBFM) Study Group-based therapy.
KMT2A-rearranged infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) represents the most refractory type of childhood leukemia. To uncover the molecular heterogeneity of this disease, we perform RNA sequencing, methylation array analysis, whole exome and targeted deep sequencing on 84 infants with KMT2A-rearranged leukemia.
Acute megakaryoblastic leukemia of Down syndrome (DS-AMKL) is a model of clonal evolution from a preleukemic transient myeloproliferative disorder requiring both a trisomy 21 (T21) and a GATA1s mutation to a leukemia driven by additional driver mutations.
Acute leukaemia is the most common childhood malignancy. Almost all cases are classified as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia or acute myeloid leukaemia. Acute leukaemia of ambiguous lineage (ALAL) is a rare form of acute leukaemia that cannot be classified by a single lineage. Like other acute leukaemias, ALAL typically presents with nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, fever, or bleeding.