Hispanic children are more likely than those from other racial and ethnic backgrounds to be diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and are more likely to die of their disease

Researchers studying a gene called ARID5B linked eight common variants of the gene to an increased risk of not only developing pediatric ALL but of having the cancer return after treatment. Two more ARID5B variants were tied to higher odds of developing the disease. Investigators found that Hispanic children were up to twice as likely as their white counterparts to inherit a high risk-version of ARID5B. Each year ALL is found in about 3,000 U.S. children, making it the most common childhood cancer. The incidence varies by self-declared race and ethnicity with rates for Hispanic individuals 50 percent higher than for non-Hispanic white individuals. For this study, researchers used genetic variations rather than individual self-report to define ancestry. White children were defined as having greater than 95% European ancestry and Hispanics children as having greater than 10% Native American ancestry. Hispanic children are less likely than children from other racial or ethnic backgrounds to be alive five years after diagnosis. Although the high-risk versions of ARID5B were found in both white and Hispanic patients, those variants were 1.5 to two times more common in Hispanic children than in white children.