A new study highlighted the risks of leukemia in children with Down syndrome.
It pointed to stronger than expected associations between Down syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one type of blood cancer.
Down syndrome is one of the most common genetic conditions in the US and Canada.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 6,000 babies with Down syndrome are born in the United States each year.
That is approximately one in every 700 babies born in the US and one in 750 newborns in Canada.
Children with Down syndrome have a substantially increased risk of multiple health conditions compared to the general population.
They have a particularly elevated risk (estimated 150-fold) of developing AML before age of five.
The study confirmed that Down syndrome is a strong risk factor for childhood leukemia.
The researchers examined medical data of more than 3.9 million children born 1996-2016 in seven US healthcare systems or in Ontario, Canada.
The data included the children's health information from birth to cancer diagnosis, death, age of 15 years, disenrollment, or December 30, 2016.
