Chemotherapy can induce mutations that lead to pediatric leukemia relapse: Study

Image Credit/ Washington: A new study has found that a group of chemotherapy drugs can result in mutations that may trigger the relapse of blood cancer in children.Chemotherapy has helped make acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) one of the most survivable childhood cancers. Now, researchers working in the US, Germany and China have shown how chemotherapy drugs called thiopurines can lead to mutations that set patients up for relapse.The findings of the study were published in the journal u0027Nature Canceru0027.The research provided the first direct genomic and experimental evidence in pediatric cancer that drug-resistant mutations can be induced by chemotherapy and…