Influence of IL15 gene variations on the clinical features, treatment response and risk of developing childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Latvian population

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood malignancy. Modern treatment protocols allow achievement of long-term event-free survival rates in up to 85% of cases, although the treatment response varies among different patient groups. It is hypothesized that treatment response is influenced by the IL15 gene variations, although research results are conflicting. To analyze IL15 gene variations influence treatment response, clinical course and the risk of developing ALL we performed a case–control and family-based study. The study included 81 patients with childhood ALL. DNA samples of both or one biological parent were available for 62 of ALL patients and 130 age and gender adjusted healthy samples were used as a control group. Analyzed IL15 gene variations: rs10519612, rs10519613 and rs17007695 were genotyped using PCR-RFLP assay. Our results shows that IL15 gene variations haplotypes are associated with the risk of developing childhood ALL (p < 0.05), although there is no such association for the variations separately. The variations rs10519612 and rs1059613 in a recessive pattern of inheritance were associated with hyperdiploidy (p = 0.048). Analyzed genetic variations had no impact on other clinical features and treatment response (assessed by the minimal residual disease) in our study.