James P. Crowley, Professor of Medicine emeritus at Brown University, shared on LinkedIn:
“Today is UN World Down Syndrome Day and in an earlier post today on LinkedIn Dr Miguel Bronchud called attention to that and explored the puzzling relation to Downs Syndrome and leukemia.
It’s known that children and adolescents with Down syndrome are between 10 to 30 times more likely to develop leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, than those without the condition.
The author of the article cited below has spoken to Dr David O’Connor, one of UK scientists who is a clinical researcher at University College and a consultant specialising in childhood blood cancer at Great Ormond Street Hospital. He has previously focused his work on this link and he was also mentioned by Dr Bronchud.
“Down syndrome occurs in approximately 1 in every 700 births so Down syndrome is a common genetic syndrome,”
– explained O’Connor.
“It’s associated with learning difficulties and various health problems like congenital heart disease. But children with Down syndrome are at significantly increased risk of leukaemia.”
But the explanation for this unclear.
For example, they do extremely well when treated for myeloid leukemia (AML) but compared to other children they do far less well for lymphoid leukemia (ALL)
An animated short, “Freebird”, was created to recognize World Down Syndrome Day in 2021.
The film, written and directed by Michael Joseph McDonald, was set to the song, “Freedom” by Jordan Hart, and won the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival in 2021.
Other articles featuring James P. Crowley on OncoDaily.