Epidemiology

British Journal of Cancer (2004) 91, 913–915. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6602099 www.bjcancer.com
Published online 24 August 2004

Human herpes virus 6 or Epstein–Barr virus were not detected in Guthrie cards from children who later developed leukaemia

G Bogdanovic1, Å G Jernberg2, P Priftakis3, L Grillner1 and B Gustafsson2

  1. 1Department of Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska University Hospital Solna, Karolinska Institutet, S-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
  2. 2Department of Paediatrics, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, S-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden
  3. 3Department of Oncology-Pathology, Cancer Centre, Karolinska University Hospital Solna, Karolinska Institutet, S-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence: Dr B Gustafsson, E-mail: britt.gustafsson@klinvet.ki.se

Received 24 March 2004; Revised 19 May 2004; Accepted 30 June 2004.

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Abstract

To investigate if children who later developed acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) were prenatally infected with HHV-6 and/or EBV, Guthrie cards taken at birth were analysed by PCR. Guthrie cards from 54 patients with ALL and 47 healthy controls matched for age and birth place were tested negative for both HHV-6 and EBV DNA. All samples contained amplifiable DNA when tested by HLA-DQ PCR. Our negative findings suggest that childhood ALL is unlikely to be associated with an in utero infection with EBV or HHV-6.

Keywords:

childhood ALL, Herpes virus, Guthrie cards, PCR, prenatal origin