Thiopurine methyltransferase Genotype Is Not a Risk Factor for Secondary Malignant Neoplasias after Treatment for Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on Berlin-Frankfurt-Muenster Protocols.

The thiopurines mercaptopurine and thioguanine are important components of contemporary polychemotherapeutic treatment protocols for acute leukemias. Thiopurines are prodrugs that undergo intestinal and hepatic metabolism. Activation occurs via a multistep pathway to form thioguanine nucleotides, which are thought to be the major cytotoxic compound through triggering cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. This process is in competition with direct inactivation of thiopurines or their metabolites by thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT). TPMT is a cytosolic enzyme that is ubiquitously expressed in the human body and catalyzes the S-methylation of thiopurines. The TPMT locus is subject to genetic polymorphism, with heterozygous individuals (5 to 11% of Caucasians) having intermediate TPMT activity, and homozygous individuals (0.3 to 0.5% of Caucasians) having low TPMT activity. At least 20 variant TPMT alleles (*2 to *18) have been described so far that confer decreased enzyme activities compared to the TPMT*1 wild-type allele. TPMT genotype is highly concordant with TPMT phenotype. With regard to long-term adverse effects, patients who have diminished TPMT activity were shown to be at increased risk of developing chemotherapy-induced acute myeloid leukemia and radiation-induced second brain tumors tumors after exposure towards mercaptopurine during therapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). To investigate if such an association is generalizable to other entities of secondary malignant neoplasms (SMN) and different treatment approaches for ALL, we collected specimens of 72 patients who developed a SMN after ALL treatment on Berlin-Frankfurt-Muenster (BFM) protocols, analyzed their TPMT genotype and compared genotype frequencies to these in the general ALL patient population. The 72 patient cohort consisted of 49 hematological SMN (half of them received cranial irradiation), 12 brain tumors, and 11 other solid SMN. Neither in the entire patient group nor in subgroup analyses, differences in allele frequencies of TPMT variants conferring diminished enzyme activity were detectable when comparing SMN patients to the overall ALL patient population. Thus, low TPMT activity does not seem to play a major role in the etiology of SMN after treatment for childhood ALL according to BFM treatment strategies. Factors potentially helpful for the explanation of the previously described relationsship of TPMT activity with SMN will be presented.