Background: Cytogenetic analysis of chromosomes in blood lymphocytes can be used to reveal biomarkers of tumor risk. The frequency of chromosomal aberrations (CAs) appears to correlate with the later incidence of cancer.
Patients and methods: In our work, a total of 515 healthy Hungarian medical workers and 725 controls were enrolled in our investigation. The CAs in peripheral blood lymphocytes were analyzed.
Results: The frequency of CAs was significantly higher in the groups working with ionizing radiation and with cytostatic agents compared to unexposed controls and in male smokers rather than non-smokers. The frequency of dicentric chromosomes, however, was not significantly different between control and exposed groups. Among 82 cancer cases (6.6%), the most frequent types were cancer of the breast (20.5%), colon (12.8%), lung and thyroid gland (9-9%). Our analysis showed 8.1% cancer cases in smokers compared to 5.7% in non-smokers.
Conclusion: The potential exposure to carcinogens did not modify the effect of CAs on cancer risk but tobacco smoking did increase risk.
Keywords: Cytogenetic analysis; aneuploidy; cancer; chromosome aberrations; medical workers; risk assessment.
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