In a new study published in Cancer Research, investigators have found neonatal inflammatory markers associated with childhood B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), indicating that children with ALL are born with a dysregulated immune function that may cause abnormal reactions to early childhood infections. "Our findings suggest that children who develop ALL are immunologically disparate already at birth," stated lead author Signe Holst Søegaard, MSc, a PhD student in the Departmen...

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified several gene types contributing to the increased incidence of multiple myeloma among those of African American descent. A rare cancer affecting plasma cells, multiple myeloma is 2 to 3 times more common among African Americans than it is among European Americans, giving it one of the highest racial disparities of any cancer. For the study, published in Blood Cancer Journal, researchers analyzed DNA from bone marrow samples of 881 patients with monoclona...

​Researchers have now discovered that a set of mutations known to play a role in colorectal cancer predisposes individuals to a multi-tumor syndrome that increases risk for breast cancer and other cancers. "We presumed to know all multi-tumor syndromes, but we have taken yet another step in identifying cancer genes," stated Nicoline Hoogerbrugge, MD, PhD, Professor of Hereditary Cancer at Radboud University Medical Center and one of the authors of the study, which was published in Cancer Cell. P...