A European research project has examined the genetic causes of glucocorticoid resistance in infants treated for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL). The findings open up new opportunities to improve the survival rates for these hard-to-treat cancers.
B-ALL is the most common paediatric cancer, with an overall five-year survival rate of 85% or more. This is thanks to well-established treatment regimens including glucocorticoids. However, for some infants (less than one year of age) with B-ALL, their disease is resistant to glucocorticoids, and survival rates as a result are less than 30%.
Most of these glucocorticoid-resistant cancers carry rearrangements in the MLL gene (also known as KMT2A), in particular the fusion between MLL...
1 hour ago
