PEDIATRICS Vol. 54 No. 2 August 1974, pp. 212
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LEUKEMIA CLUSTER IN IRELAND

Robert W. Miller M.D.1

1 Epidemiology Branch National Cancer Institute-NIH Bethesda, Maryland

In an Irish village of 415 persons, five unrelated people developed acute lymphatic leukemia and one developed lymphosarcoma in a 40-month interval. Their ages were 4, 4.5, 15, 18, 19 and 58 years. The three teenagers were close friends, and two of them worked in the same shop with the 58-year-old patient with lymphosarcoma (Kemmoona, I., Lancet 1:994, 1974). No specific cause fell under suspicion. No mention was made of special laboratory studies to probe the etiology (e.g., cytogenetics, immunology, and study of tumor- or viral-associated markers). (When cancer clusters are noted, sera should be obtained serially on survivors and frozen for later study when new tests are developed.)