Description:
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<jats:title>Background:</jats:title>
<jats:p>Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a common blood cancer, is characterized by the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Several variants of the <jats:italic toggle="yes">Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase</jats:italic> (<jats:italic toggle="yes">MTHFR</jats:italic>), mainly the C677T (rs1801133), may affect susceptibility to ALL.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Aim of the Study:</jats:title>
<jats:p>The authors conducted this case-control study to evaluate the relationship between this variant of the <jats:italic toggle="yes">MTHFR</jats:italic> gene and the risk of ALL.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Materials and Methods:</jats:title>
<jats:p>Forty-one patients with ALL and 35 non-ALL controls recruited in this study were genotyped utilizing polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism methodology.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Results:</jats:title>
<jats:p>The <jats:italic toggle="yes">MTHFR</jats:italic> 677CT genotype was significantly more frequently found in patients with ALL having a 2-fold increase in risk (<jats:italic toggle="yes">P</jats:italic> <0.01).</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Conclusion:</jats:title>
<jats:p>Our results suggest that rs1801133 of <jats:italic toggle="yes">MTHFR</jats:italic> is a predictive risk marker to ALL in Tunisian ALL.</jats:p>
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