AUS-ALL

 

The Australian Study of Causes of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in Children (AUS-ALL) was a national, population-based, multi-centre case-control study recruiting 416 cases and 870 controls over 3.5 years, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.  It started in mid 2003.  The aim of the study was to investigate genetic, dietary and environmental causes of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).  The primary hypothesis of this study is that maternal folate supplementation during pregnancy protects against ALL in the offspring, with the effect modified by genetic factors in folate metabolism.  The team is multidisciplinary, bringing together molecular biologists, geneticists, oncologists and epidemiologists.

Case subjects comprised children (0-14 years) newly diagnosed with ALL in Australia between 2003 and 2006. They were identified through all 10 paediatric oncology centres in Australia.  Two controls were selected for each case, frequency matched by age, gender and state of residence.  Controls were recruited by telephone using random digit dialing.

Data collection instruments were specifically developed for use in the study: self administered exposure questionnaires for each parent and food frequency questionnaires for the mother (during pregnancy and breastfeeding), the father (in the 12 months prior to the pregnancy), the child’s current diet (completed by the parent) and their diet as an infant. Telephone follow-up interviews asked about occupational and other exposures. An occupational exposure expert, blinded to case/control status, is examining all the occupational information and will allocate probability and amount of exposure to the chemicals with reference to a custom designed database of jobs and exposures.  To collect DNA, blood and cheek cell samples were taken from the case child, and blood samples were taken from his/her parents.  DNA was collected using cheek cells samples from some control children and their parents.

Recruitment and data collection are now complete.  Completed questionnaires were received from a total of 387 case families and 870 control families.  DNA was collected from 415 case children and 539 control children.  Data cleaning and preparation for analysis of the final datasets is well under way.  The first papers should be published in the latter half of 2009.

AUS-ALL Investigators are members of the Childhood Leukaemia International Consortium (CLIC): a consortium of scientists involved in childhood leukaemia research. CLIC’s mission is to develop and support collaborations between member groups to identify, through epidemiological studies and related research, factors that influence the risk of childhood leukaemia.  We will soon be undertaking pooled analysis of our data with those of other studies around the world.