SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 2, 2017) ―Approximately 10 percent of childhood cancer can be attributed to genetics. While genomic analysis has been used for some time to identify the risk of inherited cancer in adults, scientists are now using genomic analysis to identify genetic risk factors and to diagnose cancer at an early age in children.
“We are now able to detect which children are most at risk of developing rare pediatric cancers and identify cancers that may have been developing even before the child was born, said Gail Tomlinson, MD, PhD, of UT Health San Antonio. She is a professor and interim chair of the Department of Pediatrics, director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, and a member of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute and Mays Cancer Center.
