POLYMORPHISMS OF CHOSEN GENES IN CHRONIC YMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA; THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DISEASE COURSE AND PROGNOSIS
Disturbed interactions between chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells and the cells building their microenvironment, as well as the imbalanced expression of apoptosis regulatory molecules resulting from genetic and/or epigenetic changes, have been shown to contribute to this hematological malignancy development. One of the genetic explanations of the disease may be the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms within the genes governing cell-cell or cell-extracellular matrix interactions, apoptosis and proliferation control or immune system functions. Some of these polymorphisms are postulated to be markers of chronic lymphocytic leukemia risk and prognosis. The current review is focused on the single nucleotide polymorphisms most likely to be related to this leukemia development and progression, e.g. 184C>G and 418C>T of CD38, -938C>A of BCL-2, -248G>A and 125G>A of BAX, 309T>G of MDM2, -308G>A of TNFA, 773C>T of FGF2, -1540C>A, -460T>C, 405C>G, and 936C>T of VEGF, -3575T>A and -1082A>G of IL-10, as well as 3435C>T of MDR1.