Polymorphism of the thymidylate synthase gene and risk of relapse in childhood ALL.

Polymorphisms of genes encoding proteins involved in drug metabolism can influence the efficacy of leukemia treatment. In this population-wide study we aimed to evaluate selected, metabolically active genetic polymorphisms as prognostic markers of treatment efficacy in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). A total of 51 cases of leukemia relapse were diagnosed in a group of 354 patients with ALL. A strong association between promoter tandem repeat polymorphism of the thymidylate synthase gene and the relapse frequency was found. We believe that genotyping for this variant should be performed in patients treated for ALL to enable further optimizing of treatment protocols.