Background: Secondary or subsequent malignant neoplasms (SMNs) are one of the most serious late complications in children and adolescents after treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Several studies have reported that excess dosing of 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) therapy and polymorphisms of 6-MP metabolizing enzyme coding gene might influence the risk of SMNs. Recently, nucleoside diphosphate-linked moiety X-type motif 15 (NUDT15) variants have been identified as a cause of high sensitivity to 6-MP, which reflects a high sensitivity to 6MP in East Asians. Therefore, we investigated an association between NUDT15 genotype and incidence of SMNs in pediatric ALL.
Methods: Germline samples including bone marrow samples, peripheral blood samples and buccal swab samples during remission were obtained from 13 cases who suffered from SMN after childhood ALL. The prevalence of major NUDT15 non-functional alleles (*2 and *3), which is categorized intermediate or poor metabolizer of 6-MP in Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium Guideline (Relling M et al. Clin Pharmacol Ther 2019), was evaluated by using Sanger sequencing and/or whole exome sequencing. The NUDT15 variants prevalence in SMN patients with primary ALL was compared to those without SMN, who were registered in the TCCSG L04-16 study, which was conducted by the Tokyo Children's Cancer Study Group (TCCSG).
Results: Patients' profiles and NUDT15 genotypes were summarized in table 1. Median ages at diagnoses of ALL and SMNs were 4 (1-15) and 13 (5-44) years, respectively. Median duration between ALL and SMNs was 8 (1-30) years. SMNs included acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) / myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) (n = 8), brain tumor (n = 1), basal cell carcinoma (n = 1), bladder cancer (n = 1), Ewing sarcoma (n = 1) and osteosarcoma (n = 1). Among the 13 SMN cases, six patients (46.2%) possessed NUDT15 non-functional alleles. The SMNs of these cases included AML / MDS (n = 4), bladder cancer (n = 1) and osteosarcoma (n = 1). Among them, 3 patients, whose SMNs were AML, bladder cancer and osteosarcoma, were treated with radiation therapy against primary ALL. All NUDT15 genotypes were heterozygous variants (3 were *1/*2 and 3 were *1/*3) and seemed to be intermediate metabolizers. In patients without known SMNs in TCCSG ALL L04-16 cohort study, 73 of 437 (16.7%) possessed NUDT15 non-functional alleles. Three of them had bi-allelic variants (2 cases were *3/*3, 1 case was *2/*3), and the others were all heterozygous. The prevalence of NUDT15 non-functional alleles was significantly higher in SMNs compared to that of non-SMN cases (P = 0.012).
Conclusion: Our study indicated the NUDT15 hypomorphic variant alleles could be a risk of SMNs after ALL treatment with 6-MP. NUDT15 heterozygotic variants carriers are generally tolerable of 6-MP, and are usually treated with normal or slightly low-dose of 6-MP. However, our results suggested that standard adjustment of 6-MP in maintenance therapy might cause potential overdose of 6-MP for cases with NUDT15 variants, leading to increased risk of SMNs. To certify it, a higher number of study samples and somatic samples analysis of 6-MP induced SMNs are required. To obtain the best long-term event-free survival probability, it might be necessary to reduce the risk of SMNs development without compromising therapeutic effect by further optimal adjustment of 6-MP dose (or alternative agents).
No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
