Immunity and Infection in the Etiology of Leukemia Workshop

September 2007, San Francisco.

This workshop focused on the current evidence relating to the role of immunity and infection in the causation of childhood leukaemia. It gave the opportunity for presentations and discussions on the latest international research.

The evidence discussed included:

• Daycare: how attendance at day care, and by proxy exposure to common infections in early life, is shown by most studies to be protective against acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
• Vaccination: most studies show that the Hib vaccine has a protective effect.
• Allergies: most studies show that having a history of allergy decreases the risk of developing ALL.
• HLA molecules: these play a role in the response of the immune system to infections. There is strong evidence that children with ALL have different HLA molecules within their immune system compared to healthy children. This difference is very good evidence for the role of infection and the immune system in the development of ALL.

Presentations

A number of prominent presentations were made by scientists involved in the Northern California Childhood Leukaemia Study (NCCLS), including work which has been directly funded by us.

Dr Catherine Metayer, University of California Berkeley. Environmental chemical exposures in the aetiology of cytogenetic subgroups of childhood leukemia.

Dr Joseph Wiemels, University of California San Francisco. Aetiology of t(1;19) E2A-PBX1+ leukaemia: an integrative research project.

Professor Patricia Buffler, University of California Berkeley. Individual genetic susceptibility and environmental exposures in the etiology of childhood leukemia.

Dr Anand Chokkalingam, University of California Berkeley. Variation of genes of the MHC, exposure to infections and risk of childhood ALL.

Visiting scientists

Significant presentations were also made by visiting scientists whose research is also being funded by us.

Dr Malcolm Taylor, University of Manchester.

Professor Mel Greaves, Institute of Cancer Research, London.

A comprehensive review:

This workshop helped inform a comprehensive review of the scientific evidence of the role of infection in leukaemia, currently being undertaken by our staff scientists Drs Morgan and Edgar. The review will be published later this year and will also be available to view on this website.