WHITE BLOOD-CELL DNA-ADDUCTS, SMOKING, AND NAT2 AND GSTM1 GENOTYPES IN BLADDER-CANCER - A CASE-CONTROL STUDY

We conducted a case-control study on 114 bladder cancer patients and 4 6 hospital controls, DNA adducts were measured in WBCs by P-32 postlab eling and showed no association with smoking habits and the glutathion e-S-transferase MI genotype, A strong association between adduct level s and the N-acetyltransferase (NAT2) genotype was found (P = 0.0002), The NAT2 genotype was associated in a nonstatistically significant way to the case-control status (odds ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 0.8-3.2), In a logistic regression model, the log of DNA adduct level s was associated in a highly significant way to the risk of bladder ca ncer (regression coefficient, 0.75; P = 0.0006), independently of smok ing habits, Using the median of DNA adducts (RAL, 0.3) as a cutoff poi nt, the odds ratio for the risk of bladder cancer was 4.1 (age-adjuste d; 95% confidence interval, 1.9-9.0), Our study suggests that sources other than tobacco smoke contribute to the formation of aromatic DNA a dducts in WBCs, The role of WBC-DNA adducts in predicting bladder canc er is still to be clarified.