Progress of Research on 6-Thioguanine versus 6-Mercaptopurine in childhood ALL / 中国实验血液学杂志

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of cancer in children. Despite good remission rate has achieved nowadays, the patients still face a substantial risk of relapse. It has long been recognized that thiopurines are critical components in the treatment for prevention of recurrence in childhood ALL, the 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) has usually been used in daily long-term maintenance therapy, and 6-thioguanine (6-TG) limited to the reinforcement of therapy. However, there is no optimal regimen for 6-TG or 6-MP. The related research advances on the clinical effectiveness of the two thiopurines are reviewed.