New study highlights common genetic cause of childhood cancer

A new study has shed light on the frequency with which childhood cancers are underpinned by genetic causes.

Conducted by the St Jude Children's Research Hospital, the research saw scientists carry out next-generation DNA sequencing of both tumour cells and normal tissue from 1,120 paediatric cancer patients.

It was found that 8.5 percent of patients had pathogenic or likely pathogenic mutations of genes within their normal tissue that increase their risk of developing cancer, a greater proportion than had been expected.

Prior to this study, the presence of these germline mutations was thought to be extremely rare and restricted only to children in families with strong histories of cancer, yet more than half of the children with germline mutations lacked any such family history.

The researchers concluded that comprehensive genomic screening may therefore be warranted on all paediatric cancer patients, not just those with a family history of the disease.

Study co-author Dr Richard Wilson, director of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, said: "Our results explain why children who have not lived long enough to accumulate a critical number of cancer-causing mutations can still develop cancer."