Childhood Cancer & Leukemia International Consortium (CLIC)

In 2007, the Childhood Leukemia International Consortium (CLIC) was founded to overcome the limitations of individual case-control studies of pediatric leukemias; and in 2019, CLIC began to accept studies of childhood solid tumors and changed its name to the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia International Consortium while retaining its original acronym. CLIC’s mission is to develop and support collaborations among epidemiologists, clinicians, tumor biologists, geneticists, immunologists, toxicologists, and statisticians. Together, these scientists evaluate factors that influence the risk of childhood cancer through epidemiologic studies, genomic studies, and related research. CLIC currently focuses on studying childhood leukemias, brain tumors, and embryonal tumors. Most of these studies have detailed epidemiologic data, and about half have biospecimens or existing genomic data. The immense wealth of available data provides CLIC the unique opportunity to assess the individual and interactive effects of genetic and environmental risk factors on childhood cancers.