Veno-occlusive disease in patients receiving thiopurines during maintenance therapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Sara Stoneham, Lynne Lennard, Pietro Coen, John Lilleyman, Vaskar Saha

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    The case records of 99 consecutive children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who received either 6-thioguanine (6-TG) or 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) as maintenance therapy for at least 1 year were reviewed for hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD). Overall, 12% of those on 6-TG developed VOD (all boys). Isolated persistent thrombocytopenia appeared to be the earliest indicator of incipient VOD. Multivariate analysis identified male sex and 6-TG as risk factors. In all cases, VOD was mild and reversible on withdrawing 6-TG or replacing it with 6-MP. The data implicate a sex-linked polymorphic variation in xenobiotic pathways of thiopurine metabolism in the pathogenesis of VOD.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)100-102
    Number of pages2
    JournalBritish Journal of Haematology
    Volume123
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2003

    Keywords

    • 6-mercaptopurine
    • 6-thioguanine
    • Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
    • Childhood
    • Veno-occlusive disease

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