Playgroups 'cut leukaemia risk'

'Children who attend daycare or playgroups cut their risk of the most common type of childhood leukaemia by around 30%, a study estimates.'

Leukaemia is the most frequent cancer affecting children (1 in every 2,000 children are affected by this terrible disease).

Leukaemia is said to be caused from a genetic defect starting from the womb. However, some research has shown that if children are exposed to infections (such as roaming around playground), their bodies have stronger immune systems that can prevent leukaemia from forming. If the immune system isn't challenged during early childhood, children have a greater chance of forming leukaemia because their immune system is not used to fighting off several infections.

These results are very important because this is the first time that several studies with correlations have been put together and has actually given a VERY significant effect, which can be rare to find within cancer studies. In addition, this is just another step towards figuring out how to combat complex diseases in the human body.

I find this article interesting because I am always trying to keep up to date with different cancers affecting all kinds of different people in the world. Cancer can be such a deadly disease and being able to see that we are getting closer and closer to fixing this deadly problem everyday. We may not have an exact cure yet, but with all of these new and recent findings, such as this one, we are getting closer and closer to completely understanding this complex disease, as well as many others, and finally preventing them from the world forever.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7370773.stm