Gene Linked to Deadly Child Cancer

Though neuroblastoma causes just 7 percent of all childhood cancers, it is responsible for 15 percent of all non-adult cancer deaths. The deadly cancer has just a 40 percent survival rate, but there is new hope for families struggling with the disease; researchers have identified a gene that causes most forms of inherited neuroblastoma, the ALK gene. The discovery will enable doctors to test families affected by familial neuroblastoma and monitor children with the mutation. Mutations of this gene have also been associated with some cases of lymphoma and lung cancer, and several companies are currently working on drug treatments that block the ALK protein.