In a new study published in PLoS Medicine, William Evans of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, and colleagues provide new insight into resistance to the widely-used cancer drug methotrexate (MTX) in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the most common cancer in children.

ALL accounts for a quarter of all new childhood cancer cases every year in the United States. Children with ALL cannot fight even simple infections because genetic changes in immature lymphocytes – the white blood cells essential to the immune system – result in these cells dividing uncontrollably and failing to mature. The proliferation of these abnormal cells reduces the ability of the bone marrow to produce healthy blood cells. Children with ALL therefore are at increased risk of infection, and bruise and bleed easily, because they do not have enough white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets important for the clotting process. … Continue Reading »