Central neurotoxicity in childhood ALL v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An international retrospective investigation of central neurotoxicity related to therapy in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia/ lymphoma
IRAS ID
231162
Contact name
Christina Halsey
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Glasgow
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Childhood leukaemia treatment is often successful but can be very toxic. Side-effects can include problems with the brain (called neurotoxicity) such as fits and stroke-like episodes which, although rare, are devastating for affected families and patients. Because of their rarity little is known about why they occur or how to prevent them. To tackle this problem a consortium of 16 leukaemia study groups treating children in >20 countries have agreed to share detailed anonymised clinical data and genetic information on children who have suffered episodes of severe neurotoxicity. The project is being coordinated in Glasgow and aims to analyse these data to try and identify what causes neurotoxic episodes and whether there are ways to predict or prevent them. This should lead to less side-effects for children with leukaemia in the future. In addition to the international study, we will also be preforming an in-depth analysis of all eligible patients in the UK over the last 15 years who have suffered severe neurotoxic side effects from their chemotherapy. This will involve scrutiny of anonymised serous adverse event reports from patients enrolled on clinical trials for leukaemia, plus analysis of DNA (where available) to look for genes that might be used to predict the risk of these side effects in the future.
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1258
Date of REC Opinion
17 Jul 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion