Why a deadly blood cancer often affects children with malaria.

New research helps explain why a deadly blood cancer often affects children with malaria.Children in equatorial Africa who suffer from malaria are at high risk of developing Burkitt's lymphoma, a highly aggressive blood cancer. A new study sheds light on the long-standing mystery of how the two diseases are connected. The parasite that causes malaria infects red blood cells and liver cells, while Burkitt's lymphoma originates in infection-fighting white blood cells called B lymphocytes. So how could a malaria infection increase a child's risk of developing this type of cancer? A team of Rockefeller University researchers found that the same enzyme that helps create antibodies that fight off the malaria parasite also causes DNA damage that can lead to Burkitt's lymphoma.