ABSTRACT:
Although acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer; factors governing susceptibility to this disease have not yet been identified. CYP1A1, a member of the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, plays a very important role in the metabolism of carcinogens. To explore the contribution of CYP1A1*2A polymorphism to ALL susceptibility, we conducted a case–control analysis in Syrian children. 70 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 45 healthy control were studied. Genomic DNA was extracted, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) based PCR was applied followed by digestion with MspI. Among 70 ALL patients, 8.6% were heterozygous for the CYP1A1*2A genotype compared with 4.4% of controls. The differences between the groups were found not to be statistically significant (OR 2.016; 95% CI 0.39-10.46). The results did not show any association between CYP1A1*2A genotypes and risk of ALL in Syrian children.