Backtracking Leukemia-Typical Somatic Mutations in Cord Blood

A comprehensive mechanistic and epidemiological study to obtain banked cord blood samples from consecutive childhood leukemia patients enrolled in the COG Project:EveryChild (APEC14B1) study. Will attempt to backtrack the initiating genomic alteration identified in the matched diagnostic leukemia sample and molecularly characterize pre-leukemic cells. The ultimate goal of this research is to pinpoint the cell of origin of leukemogenic alterations formed in utero, elucidating the etiology of these initiating mutations (as opposed to frank leukemia), and devising a test for circulating pre-leukemia that can be applied on a population-wide basis.