Chromosomal changes in somatic cells in seminoma patients after treatment with ionizing radiation or cytostatics

Seminomas are sensitive to both ionizing radiation and cytostatic drugs. Th e study's objective was to find out the effects of cytostatics or ionizing radiation by comparing the results of genome testing before treatment and i mmediately afterwards. Repeat cytogenetic testing six months after completi on of treatment was used to find out changes resulting from reparatory proc esses after various types of treatment and the degree of elimination of def ective lymphocytes from circulation. Three cytogenetic tests were used in our study to find out structural chang es in chromosomes (percentage of aberrations), sister chromatid exchanges ( SCE) and the number of micronuclei in binuclear lymphocytes (MN). In patients treated with ionizing radiation, strong inhibition of the mitot ic activity of lymphocytes occurred after irradiation of pam-aortal and ips ilateral inguinal lymph nodes. However, it is difficult to make a connectio n between the mitotic activity of lymphocytes and their total number, which was found to be within a normal range throughout the study. There is, ther efore. another possibility, i.e, that this process actually involves impair ment of intracellular enzymes and blockage of the synthesis of macromolecul es in lymphocytes which have suffered a large degree of genome damage. Six months after a completed course of irradiation, mitotic activity was fo und to be mostly normal; however, there was still a very high percentage of aberrations compared with group II (patients treated with a cytostatic, pa raplatin) or with respect to the control group, in which the average percen tage of aberrations was 1.42 (excluding dicentrics and rings, which are fou nd in all irradiated patients). From the cytological-mutagenetic point of view, chemotherapy proved to be l ess aggressive to patients. The results of recovery were visible earlier an d the elimination of damaged cells was quicker.