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The GSTT1 deletion polymorphism is associated with initial response to glucocorticoids in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Leukemia volume 18, pages 1920–1923 (2004)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

As early as in the 1970s, the Berlin–Frankfurt–Münster (BFM) study group started to evaluate the early response to prednisone treatment, the so-called prednisone response, as a prognostic factor for treatment outcome.1 Prednisone response is characterized by the peripheral blood leukemic blast count on day 8 of treatment initiation after a 7-day monotherapy with prednisone and one intrathecal dose of methotrexate on treatment day 1. Good response is defined through a peripheral blood blast count of <1000/μl, while poor response is characterized by ⩾1000 blasts/μl. As the event-free survival rates between prednisone good and poor responders differ significantly (roughly 80 vs 30–40%), the identification of factors associated with and potentially accounting for these differences is of great clinical interest.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all participating ALL-BFM centers for their cooperation. This work was supported by the ‘Verein zur Förderung der Behandlung krebskranker Kinder Hannover e.V.’ and the ‘Madeleine-Schickedanz-Kinderkrebsstiftung’, Fürth, Germany.

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Author notes

  1. B Meissner and M Stanulla: Both these authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

    B Meissner, M Stanulla, A Möricke, K Welte & M Schrappe

  2. Department of Hematology, Robert-Rössle-Clinic, Oncology and Tumor Immunology, HELIOS Clinic Berlin, Charite, Campus Berlin-Buch, Berlin, 13122, Germany

    W-D Ludwig

  3. Oncogenetic Laboratory, Children's Hospital, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

    J Harbott

Authors
  1. B Meissner
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  2. M Stanulla
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  3. W-D Ludwig
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  4. J Harbott
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  5. A Möricke
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  6. K Welte
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  7. M Schrappe
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Correspondence to M Stanulla.

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Meissner, B., Stanulla, M., Ludwig, WD. et al. The GSTT1 deletion polymorphism is associated with initial response to glucocorticoids in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia 18, 1920–1923 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403521

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