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Genetic Underpinnings of Ethnic Disparities in Bone Toxicities Between Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Children Treated for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common malignancy among children and young adolescents. More than 90% of children are cured with a combination of multiple chemotherapeutic drugs. Some may suffer from debilitating toxicities due to the cytotoxic drugs, necessitating pharmacogenetic research to search for genetic markers predictive of treatment toxicities, so that treatment can be better tailored based on patients’ genetic makeup. Bone toxicities, including osteonecrosis and fractures, most often due to glucocorticoids, are the most common complications in ALL, which have long-lasting detrimental impact on the still developing skeletons in children. In DFCI ALL Consortium Protocol 05-001, a multi-center clinical trial for childhood ALL conducted in Canada and the US, we found that Hispanic children had less drug toxicities to their bones than non-Hispanic children. Although reasons for the observed ethnic differences are largely unknown, patients’ inherited genetic background may be at play. This study seeks to perform a novel pharmacogenomic study based on a multi-site clinical trial DFCI-ALL Consortium Protocol 05-001 to identify genetic underpinnings of ethnic disparities in bone toxicities.