Effects of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene polymorphisms on toxicities during consolidation therapy in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia in a Chinese population

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate whether there was a correlation between the genotype or haplotype of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene (MTHFR) and toxicities during consolidation therapy or plasma methotrexate (MTX) levels at 48 h after the first dose of MTX infusion. We retrospectively genotyped 181 children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who were treated with the Chinese Children's Leukemia Group protocol. In standard- and medium-risk treatment branches, the 677T carriers (CT + TT) had a higher risk of developing thrombocytopenia when compared with carriers of the CC genotype (odds ratio [OR] 5.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18–23.01, p = 0.017). The 1298AC/CC genotypes were associated with a decrease in skin toxicity, as compared with the common AA genotype (p = 0.037). An estimation of haplotype frequencies showed that there was no 677T–1298C haplotype in the population. A lower frequency of anemia (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.21–0.90, p = 0.025) and lower MTX level (p = 0.044) were observed in patients with the 677C–1298C haplotype than in those without. High plasma MTX level was correlated with anemia (p = 0.011) and neutropenia (p = 0.044). In the high-risk group, the polymorphisms or plasma MTX levels were not correlated with any toxicity. Taken together, our data demonstrate that genotyping of MTHFR and measurement of plasma MTX levels might be useful to optimize MTX therapy.