Deletion of parental GST genes as a possible susceptibility factor in the etiology of infant leukemia

Infant leukemia below the age of 12 months is a rare disease that exhibits a high frequency of 11q23 rearrangements. We assessed the presence of polymorphisms in several metabolic genes in 23 families of infants diagnosed with leukemia under 12 months of age in Italy. When polymorphism frequencies were calculated within families, frequencies of GST gene deletions were significantly higher than expected only among the parents of infants without the 11q23 rearrangement. These data suggest that the deletion of GST genes in parents may affect the risk of infant leukemia through a pathway independent of the MLL gene. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.