Nursery World - Exposure to germs could prevent childhood leukaemia

Exposing children to common harmless bugs, for example at nursery, could help prevent the most common type of childhood cancer.

In a major new analysis, Professor Mel Greaves, one of Britain’s leading scientists, has revealed for the first time the most likely cause of most cases of childhood leukaemia – babies not being exposed to enough microbes.

This means that that the disease may be preventable.

Professor Greaves from the Institute of Cancer Research has assessed the most comprehensive body of evidence ever collected on acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) – the most common type of childhood cancer, with a risk of developing it around one in 2,000.

Professor Greaves, who has spent more than 40 years researching childhood leukaemia, said there has been huge progress in understanding the disease and its treatment, so that today around 90 per cent of cases are cured, ‘But it has always struck me that something big was missing, a gap in our knowledge – why or how otherwise healthy children develop leukaemia and whether this cancer is preventable.

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