health

Ewing’s sarcoma results from an unusual arrangement, called translocation,
of two of the patient’s chromosomes. Chromosomes are packages of
DNA, as well as various proteins, that are found in a cell’s nucleus. They
carry an individual’s genes, which carry the instructions for a person’s cells
to work properly. The two chromosomes involved in Ewing’s sarcoma are
chromosome number 11 and chromosome number 22. The translocation
of the two chromosomes allows a gene on one of the chromosomes
to fuse to a gene on the other, and it is this fusion of genes that brings
about Ewing’s sarcoma. As of 2009, medical professionals and other scientists
did not know what causes the translocation. They had found no
evidence that it is something that is inherited from a parent, nor had they
found a link to diet or to anything else in the individual’s background. In
other words, researchers knew of nothing that parents could have done
differently to prevent Ewing’s sarcoma in their children. This is important
information for parents who may feel they are somehow to blame for a
child’s genetic disease.