Research gets to root of cancer gene

A joint Irish Cancer Society and University College Cork team has found a way to show how a critical cancer-causing gene found in acute myeloid leukemia can survive in the body — meaning a cure is one step closer to reality.

This specific type of cancer, which is diagnosed in 80 Irish children and adults a year, starts inside the bone marrow and grows from cells that in a healthy body turn into white blood cells.

When this occurs, the bone marrow stops to work properly, making sufferers more prone to infection and other serious illnesses.