Who can enter
- Children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or Burkitt lymphoma.
- Age: 2-18 years.
Goal
The goal of this study is to identify components in stool samples that help predict which children are at risk of infections, in order to detect infections at an earlier stage and maybe even prevent them.
Background
Children with cancer can have a weakened immune system, among other things due to treatment. This puts them at risk of getting serious infections and being hospitalized, sometimes even with fatal consequences. Predicting the onset of infections and an earlier detection of infections is important to increase survival and quality of life.
One of the causes of infections are different types of bacteria. Previous research has shown that a disturbance in the composition of the gut microbiota can be seen prior to the onset of an infection. Bacteria that are part of the normal microbiota are insufficiently present, while the number of pathogenic bacteria increases.
Stool samples can be used to study gut microbiota composition. During the VIKinG study, stool samples are collected at different time points. We will compare the stool of children that got an infection with the stool of children that did not develop an infection. In this way, we would like to identify components that can help us predict which children will develop an unbalance in the gut microbiota and are at risk of serious infections.
Hopefully in the future this will lead to an earlier identification of infections, more targeted therapies and maybe a way to prevent infection.