Purpose
It remains unclear whether the
MTHFR C677T, MTHFR A1298C
and
ABCB1 C3435T
genetic variants are associated with methotrexate (MTX) elimination delay and high-dose MTX (HD-MTX) toxicities in the treatment of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The aim of our study was to analyze the potential predictive role of
MTHFR C677T, MTHFR A1298C
and
ABCB1 C3435T
in toxicities and the relationship between these variants and MTX elimination delay during HD-MTX therapy in pediatric ALL patients.
Patients and Methods
We conducted a retrospective study on ALL patients receiving HD-MTX treatment with available
MTHFR C677T, MTHFR A1298C
and
ABCB1 C3435T
genotype and 44-h plasma MTX levels. Logistic regression analyses and chi-square tests were used to assess the relationship between the variants and HD-MTX toxicities and MTX elimination delay.
Results
Genotype frequencies were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. MTX elimination delay did not significantly differ between
MTHFR C677T
and
MTHFR A1298C
or
ABCB1 C3435T
. Leukopenia (P=0.028), neutropenia (P=0.034) and oral mucositis (P=0.023) were 6.444-fold, 4.978-fold and 9.643-fold increased, respectively, in
ABCB1 C3435T
homozygous genotype (
TT
) patients compared to wild-type (
CC
) patients. No significant association was found between the toxicities investigated and
MTHFR C677T
or
MTHFR A1298C
.
Conclusion
This study showed that the
ABCB1 C3435T
homozygous allele genotype (
TT
) is associated with increased MTX-related toxicities (leukopenia, neutropenia and oral mucositis). These results may help to distinguish pediatric ALL patients with a relatively high risk of MTX-related toxicities before HD-MTX infusion and optimize MTX treatment.