Re: 'NQO1 polymorphisms and de novo childhood leukemia: a HuGE review and meta-analysis'.

摘要

After having read with great interest the Human Genome Epidemiology review recently published by Guha et al. (1), we would like to comment and raise some concerns. The authors identified 7 case-control studies (2-8) investigating the association between NAD(P)H:quinone oxido-reductase 1 (NQO1) polymorphisms and childhood leukemia and presented results from a meta-analysis showing that the presence of an NQO1*2 variant allele had no significant effect on childhood leukemia risk. However, they indicated that there was an increased risk associated with having at least 1 copy of the NQO1 *2 allele in a subset of cases with translocations in the myeloid/lymphoid or mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene (1). Four childhood leukemia outcomes were assessed in this meta-analysis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), MLL-positive leukemia (ALL or AML), and MLL-AF4-positive leukemia (ALL or AML). Indeed, we think that infant leukemia, defined as leukemia occurring in the first 12 months of life, represents a biologically and clinically different disease than childhood leukemia (9) and that it should be considered a subtype separate from leukemias occurring after the first year of life. This view is supported by the different chemotherapy protocols adopted for infants.