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Claire Infante-Rivard,^1,2 Devendra Amre,^2,3 and Daniel Sinnett^2,3

¹Joint Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University Montréal, Québec, Canada; ²Research Center, Hôpital Sainte-Justine, Montréal, Québec, Canada; ³Department of Pediatrics, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine whether the risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) associated with drinking water disinfection by-products was modified in the presence of variants in genes involved in the metabolism of trihalomethanes (THMs) . We included a subset of cases from a population-based case-control study in a case-only study to estimate the interaction odds ratios (IORs) between prenatal and postnatal exposure to THMs and polymorphisms in the GSTT1 and CYP2E1 genes. We compared cases with and without a given variant regarding their exposure to THMs using unconditional logistic regression. The IOR for a postnatal average of total THM above the 95th percentile with GSTT1 null genotype was 9.1 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) , 1.4-57.8]. With CYP2E1 (variant G-1259C, known as the allele CYP2E1*5) , the effect of exposure during pregnancy for an average exposure to total THM at or above the 75th percentile was 9.7 (95% CI, 1.1-86.0) . These results contrast strongly with those from our case-control analysis, in which we considered the exposure to THMs only in relation with ALL, and observed no increase in risk or very moderate ones. The present preliminary study shows suggestive but imprecise results. We found no similar results in the literature, underscoring the need for other studies as well as the potential usefulness of combining exposure and relevant genetic information in such studies. Key words: childhood leukemia, CYP2E1, disinfection by-products, drinking water, genetic polymorphisms, GSTT1, trihalomethanes. Environ Health Perspect 110:591-593 (2002) . [Online 25 April 2002]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2002/110p591-593infante-rivard/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to C. Infante-Rivard, Joint Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, 1130 Pine Avenue West, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3A 1A3. Telephone: (514) 398-4231. Fax: (514) 398-7435. E-mail: cirivard@epid.lan.mcgill.ca

We thank the oncologists and hematologists J.-M. Leclerc (Hôpital Sainte-Justine) , M. Whitehead (Montréal Children's Hospital) , L. Côté-Brisson (Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval) , J. Brossard (Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Sherbrooke) , and R. Simard (Centre Hospitalier de Chicoutimi) for their collaboration, and the following members of the research team: M. Petitclerc, D. Hamer, A. Chartier, and E. Olson.

This project was supported by grants from the National Research and Development Program (NHRDP) , Ottawa ; the NHRDP-Saint-Laurent Vision 2000-Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) program ; and the Hydro-Québec-FRSQ program on environment and child health.

Received 17 July 2001 ; accepted 20 November 2001.