Major EU study to investigate the role of environmental factors in childhood cancer
2 juli 2026
A large European consortium will investigate environmental factors that may cause cancer in children, teenagers, and young adults. An increase in cancer diagnoses among adolescents and young adults suggests that environmental exposures may play a greater role than previously thought. Through rigorous research into external causes of childhood cancer, the research team aims to contribute to improved regulations that could help prevent some cases of childhood cancer in the future.
For a long time, childhood cancer was thought to be largely a matter of bad luck: cell growth in the developing body goes awry. The assumption was that children had not lived long enough to be exposed to carcinogenic substances or other environmental factors, such as air pollution.
In approximately one in ten children with cancer, an inherited DNA mutation contributes to the development of the disease. Since the 1990s, however, there has been an increase in the number of adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer. There is growing evidence that environmental factors may be responsible for part of this increase.
To investigate this, researchers from nine European countries and Canada, led by the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology, will search for substances that may be carcinogenic in children and young adults. The researchers will focus on exposures before birth and during early life in children and young adults with blood cancers or brain tumors.
The study is funded by the European Union and officially started this month.
If you or your child has been treated for childhood cancer, you may have questions about this research. Please check out the Frequently Asked Questions page or contact your directing practitioner or the care team.
Epidemiology and lab
In the first phase, researchers will link epidemiological data on the occurrence of childhood cancer to data on exposure to a wide range of environmental factors. Scientists at Utrecht University will measure environmental substances – such as those originating from air pollution and pesticides – in blood samples from people who developed cancer at a young age. The researchers will also examine relatively new forms of exposure, including substances found in vaping products.
Substances identified during the first phase will then undergo extensive laboratory testing. By exposing human stem cells to these substances, researchers will investigate their biological effects. This will help determine whether the substances are truly carcinogenic – that is, whether they directly or indirectly contribute to the development of cancer.
Substances found to have a direct or indirect cancer-causing effect will be studied in even greater detail. In this final phase, researchers will investigate whether the biological ‘fingerprint’ left behind in DNA by a carcinogenic substance can also be detected in tissue from healthy individuals. If so, this would provide scientific evidence to support changes in policies related to environmental exposures. Ultimately, the researchers hope their findings will help prevent some cases of cancer.
Professor Ruben van Boxtel, research group leader at the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology and Oncode Institute, is leading the European CUECAN consortium. He says: ‘For a long time, it was assumed that childhood cancer could not be prevented. However, there is increasing evidence that this assumption may not be correct. The rise in cancer among adolescents and young adults suggests that environmental factors may play an important role.
‘If, in this large-scale study, we can identify even a single preventable exposure that increases cancer risk, it could represent a major breakthrough. It would open up new opportunities for prevention.
‘Individuals have no control over many of the environmental factors to which they are exposed. That is precisely why it is so important to identify these external causes. Only then can we prevent children from becoming ill because of them in the future.’