'Fossil record' in stored blood samples lets scientists trace leukemia back decades before diagnosis

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Scientists used stored blood samples to trace the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) decades before diagnosis. In two-thirds of the cases studied, the first cancer-driving mutation was acquired before age 20, potentially more than 50 years before the disease was diagnosed.

Scientists have reconstructed how acute myeloid leukemia (AML) develops over the decades before diagnosis, showing that in two-thirds of cases the first cancer-driving mutation had been acquired before the age of 20—more than 50 years before diagnosis.