Researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have found that switching off a gene called Pax5 can cause a form of leukemia known as B-progenitor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common cancer affecting children, but that switching it back on can effectively "cure" the disease, NewsMax Health reports.

In people with leukemia, abnormal white blood cells build up in the bone marrow.

The genetic switch technology used to study Pax5 could also be used to examine "tumor suppressor" genes in other cancers, as well.