Clinical Relevance of DNMT and HDAC Gene SNP on the Response to Decitabine Therapy for Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Recent investigations have demonstrated that DNMT gene polymorphisms can contribute to the inter-individual variants in DNMT expression. Accordingly, we hypothesized that the DNMT and HDAC genes SNPs could predict the outcomes of decitabine therapy for myelodysplastic syndrome. Prospective collection of DNA from peripheral blood will be performed in the patients with MDS before commencement of decitabine therapy. We will evaluate the efficacy decitabine therapy according to the DNMT or HDAC gene SNPs in terms of following parameters: 1) hematolotic response (HR) or improvement (HI), or requirement of decitabine dose to achieve HR or HI, 2) complete (CR) or partial response (PR), or requirement of decitabine dose to achieve CR or PR, and 3) time to relapse or progression of MDS. The objective of this study is 1) to determine genotypes from DNA samples from MDS patients receiving Decitabine therapy, 2) to determine the association of clinical outcomes (HR, HI, CR, PR or time to progression to leukemia) following decitabine therapy with DNMT or HDAC genotypes, and 3) to analyze the impact of cytogenetic risk on the response or leukemic evolution following decitabine therapy for MDS.