The UK scientists reported that a breakthrough study of identical twins has for the first time confirmed the existence of cancer stem cells that cause the most common form of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).

As a result of these new findings, the scientists hopes to be able to develop a less aggressive treatment for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Stem cells are primal cells found in all multi-cellular organisms, which have the potential of differentiating themselves into a diverse range of specialized cell types.

In a study funded by the UK’s leading blood cancer charity Leukaemia Research and the Medical Research Council (MRC), the researchers have compared cells in the blood of three-year-old identical twins Olivia, who is being treated for leukaemia, and Isabella who is healthy.

The researchers concluded that both twins had the same genetically abnormal primitive cells in their blood. These “pre-leukaemic” stem cells reside in the bone marrow and either “lay dormant” or go on to develop into full-blown leukaemia stem cells.

“This research means that we can now test whether the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children can be correlated with either the disappearance or persistence of the leukaemia stem cell. Our next goal is to target both the pre-leukaemic stem cell and the cancer stem cell itself with new or existing drugs to cure leukaemia while avoiding the debilitating and often harmful side effects of current treatments,” said Professor Tariq Enver, who led the research at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit.

According to the new findings, the pre-cancerous stem cells arise from an abnormal fusion of two genes during the mother’s pregnancy to create a hybrid protein “TEL-AML1”. This genetic mistake can set in motion a series of events that cause the cells to become leukaemic.

The conclusions of the study will be published tomorrow in the journal Science under the title “Initiating and tumor-propagating cells in TEL-AML1- associated leukemia”.