Child leukaemia and infections link examined

EDINBURGH University's public health sciences department is studying the causes of childhood leukaemia. The project will analyse data on diagnosed cases of leukaemia in the hopeof better understanding the supposed link between common infections and leukaemia in children aged between one and seven. The study will also look into rare infant leukaemia.

, which affects three in every 100,000 babies and causes specific genetic damage in affected infants. The genetic defect in these babies is rarely found in other older leukaemia patients, except where the person has undergone chemotherapy for the treatment of another cancer. This second part of the research is an international study and will investigate a range of maternal environmental and dietary factors which may be implicated in the disease.