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Blood, 15 January 2005, Vol. 105, No. 2, pp. 906-907. This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Stanulla, M. Articles by Reiter, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Stanulla, M. Articles by Reiter, A. Related Collections Related Article in Blood Online Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents CORRESPONDENCE To the editor: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) 677C>T polymorphism and risk of pediatric non-Hodgkin lymphoma in a German study population Skibola and colleagues recently reported on a comprehensive evaluation of associations between polymorphisms in folate-metabolizing genes and adult non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) risk in a large population-based case-control study conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area.1 In contrast to most previous findings,2-5 upon stratification by NHL histologic subtype, heterozygous or homozygous presence of the MTHFR 677T allele was associated with an 1.8-fold increased risk (adjusted for MTHFR 1298A>C) of follicular lymphoma. The authors suggested that low folate and elevated homocysteine levels may increase follicular lymphoma risk through increased DNAhypomethylation with potential consequences contributing to lymphoma risk (eg, chromosomal instability, reactivation of transposable elements). Here, we report on the association of MTHFR 677 genotype with pediatric NHL analyzing 487 patients up to 18 years of age from the Austrian-German-Swiss multicenter trial NHL-BFM 95 conducted by the Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (BFM) study group and 379 healthy controls. Patients were enrolled between April 1996 and March 2001. With regard to clinical characteristics of the investigated 487 NHL patients, 343 patients (70.4%) were of male sex and 222 (45.6%) were 10 years or older at the time of diagnosis. The distribution of the major histologic subtypes is shown in Table 1. Table 1 also summarizes the association of MTHFR 677 genotype with pediatric NHL in the entire patient group and in the major histologic subgroups. In the analysis, an increased risk of lymphoblastic lymphoma for individuals with the 677T>T genotype was observed (odds ratio = 2.14; 95% CI = 1.11-4.12; P = .02), while no significant associations were obtained for the entire patient group or other histologic subtypes. View this table: [in this window] [in a new window]   Table 1.. Distribution of MTHFR 677 genotype in 487 pediatric NHL patients and 379 controls, and its association with risk of disease in all patients from trial NHL-BFM 95 and by selected histologic subgroups   Our findings do not support a general major influence of the MTFHR 677C>T polymorphism on the susceptibility to pediatric NHL in the investigated population. However, in accordance with the observation of Skibola et al in adult NHL,1 our results suggest that folate metabolism may be associated with specific subtypes of pediatric NHL. Martin Stanulla, Kathrin Seidemann, Eckart Schnakenberg, Marion Book, Andrea Mehles, Karl Welte, Martin Schrappe, and Alfred Reiter Correspondence: Martin Stanulla, Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Children's Hospital, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str 1, 30625 Hannover, Germany; e-mail: stanulla.martin{at}mh-hannover.de References Skibola CF, Forrest MS, Coppede F, et al. Polymorphisms and haplotypes in folate-metabolizing genes and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Prepublished on June 15, 2004, as DOI 10.1182/blood-2004-02-0557. (Now available as Blood. 2004;104: 2155-2162).[Abstract/Free Full Text] Skibola CF, Smith MT, Kane E, et al. Polymorphisms in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene are associated with susceptibility to acute leukemia in adults. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999;96: 12810-12815.[Abstract/Free Full Text] Wiemels JL, Smith RN, Taylor GM, et al. Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) polymorphisms and risk of molecularly defined subtypes of childhood acute leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001;98: 4004-4009.[Abstract/Free Full Text] Matsuo K, Suzuki R, Hamajima N, et al. Association between polymorphisms of folate- and methionine-metabolizing enzymes and susceptibility to malignant lymphoma. Blood. 2001;97: 3205-3209.[Abstract/Free Full Text] Gemmati D, Ongaro A, Scapoli GL, et al. Common gene polymorphisms in the metabolic folate and methylation pathway and the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in adults. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2004;13: 787-794.[Abstract/Free Full Text] CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? Related Article in Blood Online: Polymorphisms and haplotypes in folate-metabolizing genes and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma Christine F. Skibola, Matthew S. Forrest, Fabio Coppedé, Luz Agana, Alan Hubbard, Martyn T. Smith, Paige M. Bracci, and Elizabeth A. Holly Blood 2004 104: 2155-2162. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Stanulla, M. Articles by Reiter, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Stanulla, M. Articles by Reiter, A. Related Collections Related Article in Blood Online Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

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