I. Aguirrezabalaga et al., HEXAMETHYLMELAMINE IS A POTENT INDUCER OF DELETIONS IN MALE GERM-CELLS OF DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER, Carcinogenesis, 16(11), 1995, pp. 2679-2683
Chemotherapy-related second tumors constitute a matter of concern in c
ancer treatment. Therefore, it is of great interest to elucidate the m
echanisms by which cytostatic drugs exert their mutagenic and/or carci
nogenic activity besides the anticancer effect and the possible relati
onship among them, A useful and informative approach to this problem i
s the analysis of the mutation spectra induced by these drugs in eukar
yotic organisms, Sequence analysis of the mutations induced by hexamet
hylmelamine, a crosslinking agent extensively used in the treatment of
ovarian cancer, in male germ cells of Drosophila was conducted using
the v locus as reporter gene, Both intra-locus and multi-locus deletio
ns were induced whereas base changes were almost absent, Thus, it is p
roposed that deletions are likely to be involved in the generation of
second malignancies in hexamethylmelamine-treated patients. It has to
be stressed that systems, such as v, capable of efficiently recovering
mutations caused by big losses of DNA, should be used for the study o
f mutational spectra induced by cross-linking agents.