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A team of scientists has uncovered new evidence that some cases of a subtype of childhood leukaemia may develop before birth, shedding light on how the disease evolves over time.

New research has endorsed a long standing idea explaining why acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) – the most common cancer in children – appears abruptly in early life, often in otherwise healthy individuals, with no obvious environmental trigger.

Scientists have unveiled a ground-breaking approach to tackling one of cancer biology’s most elusive targets: the protein LMO2, a key driver of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL).

A new study has shown that small genetic changes in a key protein can determine whether myeloma cells resist or respond to treatment – findings that could help clinicians choose more effective therapies for patients with this type of blood cancer.

New research has ruled out hormone signalling as the reason why men with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) tend to have poorer outcomes than women, even when treated with the same intensive chemotherapy – a finding that helps refine future research and could influence clinical trial design.

Scientists have identified a more accurate way of predicting which patients with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, are likely to relapse early following treatment.

Scientists have developed a new test that can decode when someone’s cancer first started growing and how fast it is growing, potentially allowing doctors to accurately predict when a patient will need treatment.

Thousands of patients with a common type of blood cancer could benefit from a new drug combination, while others could see their disease kept at bay for longer.

The overuse of CT scans could cause over 100,000 cases of cancer in the US – with almost 10,000 cases in children, researchers have warned.

Offering extended genetic testing to patients with the blood cancer myeloma would help doctors spot those with the most aggressive forms of the disease so that their cancer can be targeted more effectively, say scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research, London.

Researchers have identified a key weakness in acute myeloid leukaemia, offering a promising new strategy to delay the progression of this aggressive blood cancer. The discovery focuses on disrupting the function of a certain protein complex that cancer cells, including leukaemia cells, rely on to maintain their abnormal growth.

Scientists have found a new way to predict which patients with the blood cancer myeloma will benefit the most from a treatment often used to help keep the disease from coming back after a bone marrow transplant.