Department of Effects and Risks of Ionizing and Non-ionizing Radiation, Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), Neuherberg, Germany.
Division of Childhood Cancer Epidemiology, Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2021 Dec 24;9:805757. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.805757. eCollection 2021.
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 5 and Sca1- 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.
儿童白血病（CL）无疑是由多因素过程引起的，遗传和环境因素都起着作用。但尽管在多个科学领域进行了多次努力，疾病的原因和可能的危险因素的相互作用仍知之甚少。为了推动 CL 病因的研究，德国联邦辐射防护办公室自 2008 年以来每隔两到三年就组织一次国际研讨会。2019 年 11 月，第六届 CL 病因国际研讨会在弗赖辛举行，汇集了来自不同学科的专家。研讨会分为两个主要部分，分别侧重于遗传和环境危险因素。另外两个特别会议讨论了自然本底辐射对 CL 风险的影响以及在开发用于实验性研究急性淋巴细胞白血病（世界范围内最常见的白血病形式）的小鼠模型方面的进展。研讨会的介绍强调了感染作为 CL 的环境危险因素的作用，特别是对急性淋巴细胞白血病。主要支持来自两种小鼠模型，即 5 和 Sca1- 小鼠模型，这是过去几年的主要成就之一。只有在暴露于常见感染时，这两种易感模型的小鼠才会发展为白血病。这些结果强调了基因-环境相互作用对 CL 发展的影响，并需要进一步研究这种相互作用-特别是因为 CL 中越来越频繁地检测到遗传易感性。本文总结了研讨会的介绍，并结合国际文献讨论了结果。
