The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society awarded a grant of more than $350,000 to Charles S. Hemenway, associate professor of pediatrics at the Tulane University School of Medicine, to study a molecule that kills the leukemia cells of individuals who have an aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Leukemia is a malignant disease of the bone marrow and blood. In Louisiana there are approximately 500 new cases of leukemia diagnosed each year and approximately 400 deaths each year attributed to leukemia, according to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In fact, leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under the age of 20.

Scientists believe that ALL can arise when genetic material contained in chromosomes of developing blood cells is broken and rearranged.

For more information, go to the Tulane Cancer Center website: www.som.tulane.edu/ cancer/pr20050217.html