Certain inherited, or genetic, diseases increase a person's chances for developing ALL. People who are exposed to high doses of radiation (from the explosion of an atomic bomb, working in an atomic weapons plant, or from a nuclear reactor accident) have a heightened risk of developing this form of leukemia.
Many people with one or more of these risk factors never develop leukemia. In fact, most people who develop ALL have no known risk factors. Scientists do know that most types of leukemia are associated with specific gene mutations -- alterations in the DNA of the diseased cells -- but in the majority of cases it is not clear what causes those mutations.
