Abstract: The disclosure relates to methods for characterizing and/or treating a subject having cancer, said methods comprising performing an assay to identify the nucleotides present at each of a set of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) locations within the cytarabine (ara-C) pathway, assigning a genotype score for the identified nucleotides of each SNP, and characterizing the subject having cancer based on the summation of the assigned genotype scores. In some embodiments, treatment is administered based upon the characterization of the subject, according to the methods described herein.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate to compositions and methods for predicting prognosis and classifying risk of subjects having certain cancers, for example acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In some embodiments, methods described by the disclosure comprise a step of assessing the mRNA expression of certain leukemic stem cell (LSC)-enriched genes in a subject to produce a predictive score for pediatric AML. In some embodiments, methods described by the disclosure comprise a step of assessing the mRNA expression of certain genes of pharmacological relevance for standard chemotherapy consisting of Cytarabine (also known as Ara-C), daunorubicin and etoposide in a subject to produce a predictive score for pediatric AML.