Risk Factors for Childhood Leukemia: Radiation and Beyond

Childhood leukemia (CL) is undoubtedly caused by a multifactorial process with genetic as well as environmental factors playing a role. But in spite of several efforts in a variety of scientific fields, the causes of the disease and the interplay of possible risk factors are still poorly understood. To push forward the research on the causes of CL, the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection has been organizing recurring international workshops since 2008 every two to three years. In November 2019 the 6th International Workshop on the Causes of CL was held in Freising and brought together experts from diverse disciplines. The workshop was divided into two main parts focusing on genetic and environmental risk factors, respectively. Two additional special sessions addressed the influence of natural background radiation on the risk of CL and the progress in the development of mouse models used for experimental studies on acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of leukemia worldwide. The workshop presentations highlighted the role of infections as environmental risk factor for CL, specifically for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Major support comes from two mouse models, the Pax5(+/−) and Sca1-ETV6-RUNX1 mouse model, one of the major achievements made in the last years. Mice of both predisposed models only develop leukemia when exposed to common infections. These results emphasize the impact of gene-environment-interactions on the development of CL and warrant further investigation of such interactions — especially because genetic predisposition is detected with increasing frequency in CL. This article summarizes the workshop presentations and discusses the results in the context of the international literature.