Can Gilbert's syndrome mitigate chronic lymphocytic leukemia?

Leonid L Yavorkovsky; Lev Shvidel

doi:10.1016/j.lrr.2022.100322

Can Gilbert's syndrome mitigate chronic lymphocytic leukemia?

Leuk Res Rep. 2022 May 6:17:100322. doi: 10.1016/j.lrr.2022.100322. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Leonid L Yavorkovsky¹, Lev Shvidel²

Affiliations

¹ Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, Oncology Division, 270 International Circle, San Jose, CA, 95119 United States of America.
² Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Hadassah and the Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.

Abstract

The study links two intriguing observations about chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Gilbert's syndrome - the oxidative stress affecting the former, and the anti-oxidative effects of the latter. Our pilot study showed that compared to the general CLL population, the GS/CLL cohort less commonly required therapy and demonstrated a reduced CLL-related mortality. Our findings prompt a speculation that elevated bilirubin in GS could hypothetically attenuate the oxidative stress thereby exerting a safeguarding effect on leukemia pathogenesis. We believe that this hypothesis-generating study could open new avenues for exploring oxidative stress as a potential pathogenetic and, hypothetically, therapeutic target for mitigating CLL.

Keywords: Gilbert's; Leukemia; Lymphocytic; Syndrome.