Background Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children and
the incidence of ALL varies by ethnicity. Although accumulating evidence indicates inherited
predisposition to ALL, the genetic basis of ALL susceptibility in diverse ancestry has not
been comprehensively examined. Methods We performed a multiethnic genome-wide
association study in 1605 children with ALL and 6661 control subjects after adjusting for
population structure, with validation in three replication series of 845 case subjects and …

We appreciate the comments of Lopez et al. and their efforts to validate the novel
susceptibility variants for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) described in our
recent genome-wide association study. Comparing genotype frequency at the PIP4K2A
single nucleotide polymorphism rs7088318 between 191 patients with B-ALL and 342
control subjects from Basque Country in Spain, they did not detect an association of this
variant with ALL risk under the additive model (although there was a trend toward statistical …