TELOMERIC ASSOCIATION IN WOMEN WITH BREAST AND UTERINE CERVIX CANCER

This study compares the frequency of telomeric associations in the per ipheral blood of women suffering breast and cervix uterine cancer with a healthy control group. Two kinds of cultures were developed for eac h Individual: with and without aphidicolin. In the normal cultures, th e number of telomeric associations observed was 95.5 times higher in i ndividuals affected by breast cancer and 41.3 times higher in those af fected by cervix uterine cancer when compared to the control group (p < 0.001). In the cultures with aphidicolin, higher numbers of altered metaphases were observed in both groups as compared to the control gro ups (p < 0.001). Statistically significant differences (p < 0.001) cou ld also be observed when comparing telomeric associations between the two types of cancer in both cultures. When we compared individuals aff ected by breast cancer in both types of cultures statistical differenc es were found (p < 0.05), and similar results were found in individual s affected by uterine cervix cancer (p < 0.001). The findings suggest that telomeric associations may be reflecting chromosome instability o bserved in cancer and that this instability behaves differently for va rious types of cancer. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1997.