Abstract:

Objective: Folic acid-related genes’ polymorphisms have been related with a predisposition to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Two common polymorphic sites on MTHFR gene; T677T and C1298C may decrease the activity of this enzyme compared to the wild type alleles (C677C and A1298A). The polymorphism may affect the metabolism of antifolate drugs and cause increased drug toxicity and decreased survival. In this study, we evaluated the effect of two frequent polymorphisms on survival of children with ALL.Material and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated patients who had been diagnosed with B cell ALL and then treated with the BFM TRALL 2000 treatment protocol. We recorded their absolute blast counts at day 8, and bone marrow evaluation at days 15 and 33 as well as MTHFR polymorphisms. results: Fifty-six patients [male/female: 33/23, mean age at diagnosis 4.73 years range 1.3-16.75 years)] were included in the study. Out of the 56 patients, 5 developed relapse. There was no relationship between different polymorphic alleles of the MTHFR gene with survival and event-free survival. conclusion: We did not observe any effect of MTHFR polymorphisms on survival of children with ALL. We believe further studies with a larger group of patients are necessary to draw a firm conclusion

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