MLL gene rearrangements in infant leukemia vary with age at diagnosis and selected demographic factors: a Children's Oncology Group (COG) study.

Background Infant leukemias have a high frequency of mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene rearrangements. Procedure. Using data from a large etiologic study, we evaluated the distribution of selected demographic factors among 374 infant leukemia cases by leukemic subtype, MLL status and diagnosis age. Results. Overall, 228 cases were MLL+. Compared to white infants, black infants were significantly less likely to have MLL+ leukemia. Further, there was a statistically significantly higher age at diagnosis for infants with t(9; 11) translocations compared to all other translocation partners in both acute lymphoblastic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia cases. Conclusion. These patterns may provide important etiological insight into the biology of infant leukemia. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2012; 58: 836- 839. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.