Toxicology: Open Access
Open Access

Research Article

Female Gender and Hispanic Ethnicity are Associated with Increased Risk of Subacute Methotrexate Encephalopathy

Clara Y Lo¹, Cynthia Campen^1,2, Sandra Luna-Fineman¹, Norman J Lacayo¹, Paul G Fisher^1,2 and Gary V Dahl^1*

¹Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Stem Cell Transplantation and Cancer Biology, California

²Department of Neurology, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, California

*Corresponding Author:

Dahl GV
Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Stem Cell Transplantation and Cancer Biology, California
Tel: 650-723-5535
Email: gary.dahl@stanford.edu

Received date: November 02, 2015 Accepted date: December 10, 2015 Published date: December 12, 2015

Citation: Lo CY, Campen C, Luna-Fineman S, Lacayo NJ, Fisher PG, Dahl GV (2015) Female Gender and Hispanic Ethnicity are Associated with Increased Risk of Subacute Methotrexate Encephalopathy. Toxicol open access 1: 104. doi:10.4172/2476-2067.1000104

Copyright: © 2015 Lo CY, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Subacute methotrexate (MTX) encephalopathy is poorly understood. We performed a historical cohort study of all cases of subacute MTX encephalopathy at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital from January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2011. Of 272 patients receiving MTX, 21 patients were diagnosed with subacute MTX encephalopathy. Nine patients (42.9%) in this study were Hispanic females, whereas Hispanic females represented 56 of 272 (20.6%) total patients (p=0.0084). Further comparison with the 2010 California census confirms a Hispanic female predominance (p=0.032). We report a predominance of Hispanic females with subacute MTX encephalopathy, which suggests a genetic polymorphism that increases disease risk.

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