COMPARISON BETWEEN MICRONUCLEATED LYMPHOCYTE RATES OBSERVED IN HEALTHY-SUBJECTS AND CANCER-PATIENTS

Micronucleated cell rates were assessed in cytokinesis-blocked lymphoc ytes of 198 male and female healthy subjects (HS) not occupationally e xposed to genotoxic risks and of 70 male and female cancer patients (C P) prior to any anticancer treatment, In the HS group, spontaneous mic ronucleated cell rates (MN cell rates) were 9.7 +/- 2.8 per 1000 binuc leated lymphocytes and 9.8 +/- 3.1 for males and females respectively, In the CP group, spontaneous MN cell rates were 21.1 +/- 15.3 per 100 0 binucleated lymphocytes and 19.1 +/- 11.2 for males and females resp ectively, Moreover, they were shown to have a large inter-individual v ariability in the two groups, The study of inter-individual variation factors showed that only tobacco could affect MN cell rate in HS where as age and sex apparently had no significant effect, In the CP group, only age significantly affected MN cell rate, whereas sex, tobacco, al cohol, imaging techniques and tumour stage had no significant effect, There was no significant difference in the distribution of gender betw een HS and CP, whereas there was a significant difference in the distr ibution of age and tobacco between the two groups, The comparison of M N cell rates in 54 HS and 54 CP matched for age and sex showed a stati stically significant difference, Spontaneous MN cell rates of these tw o populations reflect environmental exposure, Moreover, for CP it most probably refers to various cellular lesions and genetic damage.