“Can an episode of sepsis in childhood cause the risk of blood cancer in the future?”
I am a 27 year old woman. When I was 3 months old I had an episode causing sepsis which required me to be in the hospital for over 1 month in the NICU. Luckily the treatment was successful. However, I would like to know if the sepsis that occurred in my childhood can cause blood cancer now?
1 Answer
One of the most common pediatric leukemia is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia There was an article published in journal of Nature Review Volume 18, August in 2018, pp 471 showed Microbial exposures earlier in life are protective but, in their absence, later infections trigger the critical secondary mutations in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Common infections were therefore proposed to have two opposing impacts on risk of ALL that depend on timing — antagonistic (early) or promotional (late) based on the publication. therefore, antibiotic use in infancy might increase risk of ALL. There are very great interest on the role of Microbiata (good microbes in our body) in immune modulation. This has not been systematically evaluated to date, There are limits to what epidemiological studies can achieve. I recommend Germ line mutation testing be done (Fanconi DNA breakage test, TERT testing, TP53 mutation status (Li-Fraumeni syndrome), and the panel of genes based on your overall family history.
