Childhood cancers hope for new research

Posted 29/05/2012

It has been announced that scientists in America have released what is the world’s largest collection of genetic data collected from children suffering from cancer. They have mapped the entire genome of 260 children suffering from a variety of cancers. The hope and intention is that by being able to see the whole DNA of these individuals it will provide a huge boost to research into the possible causes and treatments. It is already being said that this information is advancing the understanding of childhood cancers and how they fundamentally differ from cancer in adults.Trefine Maynard, a medical injury solicitor from Ashtons Legal, says: ‘What a welcome and heartening example of true generosity of spirit. A great deal of time and scientific work has gone into the project and it is enormously encouraging that the results have been made available to the whole scientific community. We have dealt with a number of heartbreaking cases involving delay in diagnosis and treatment of cancer in children with the result that the child has lost the chance of successful treatment. These are very obvious examples of how a legal case can never provide any real ‘compensation’ to those affected although in many cases it seems only legal action can provide a full answer to what happened. It underlines the reasons that lawyers go into this field of litigation, in order to help people who are affected by errors in medical treatment and hold those responsible for such failures to account, but most importantly of all to bring these mistakes to the attention of the authorities in the hope that action will be taken to avoid the same errors being repeated in the future.’