Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is the most current cancer disease in children. There are different forms, depending on specific changes in the genetic material of the leukemia cells. Thanks to intense research, the chances of survival have increased for most forms of ALL during the last decades.
Within a cooperation of five German institutions and one from Switzerland, scientists from the Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel (CAU) and the Hannover Medical School (MHH) succeeded in genetically decoding one of the - until now - incurable forms of leukemia, as well as developing approaches for possible therapies.
The results of the studies were published in Nature Genetics on 27 July 2015. Nature Genetics (2015) doi:10.1038/ng.3362
press release (in German only)
Childhood leukemia project , funded by Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz