Risk Factors for Leukemia

Certain factors can make one person more likely to get leukemia than another person. These are called risk factors. Although such risk factors do exist, a person who has one or more risk factors will not necessarily get leukemia. In fact, a person can have all the risk factors and still not get leukemia, or he or she can have no known risk factors and still get the disease.

Some risk factors, such as having a rare inherited disease, are beyond a person's control. Other risk factors, such as smoking, are lifestyle choices a person can control. The following are known risk factors for leukemia:

Smoking. People who smoke are more likely to get AML than people who do not smoke. Scientists estimate that smoking causes 20 percent of all AML cases.

Environmental concerns. Certain environmental factors have been linked to acute leukemia:

Chemical exposure. Being exposed for a long period of time to certain chemicals, such as benzene, is a known risk factor. Chemicals used in the rubber and shoe industries may also increase a person's risk of developing leukemia.

Radiation exposure. High doses of radiation, such as those from an atomic bomb blast or a nuclear reactor accident, increase a person's risk of getting AML and ALL.

Chemotherapy drugs. People who receive certain chemotherapy drugs to treat other cancers are more likely to get AML. This is particularly true of people treated for Hodgkin's disease and breast cancer. In these cases, a person's risk of leukemia is higher for a number of years after the first cancer is treated. This risk is not high enough not to treat the cancer.

Rare diseases. A very small number of people are at greater risk for acute leukemia because they have inherited very rare diseases. People with Down's syndrome, ataxia telangiectasia, and Bloom's syndrome also have an increased risk of developing acute forms of leukemia.