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Mutagen sensitivity as a predisposing factor in familial oral cancer
Author(s) -
Ankathil Ravindran,
Bhattathiri Narayanan V.,
Francis James V.,
Ratheesan K.,
Jyothish B.,
Chandini R.,
Roy Dinesh D.,
Elizabeth Abraham K.,
Nair M. Krishnan
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19960822)69:4<265::aid-ijc4>3.0.co;2-v
Subject(s) - mutagen , medicine , genetics , risk factor , oncology , biology , carcinogen
Pedigree analysis of the oral cancer (OC) patients registered at our Centre had disclosed familial aggregation of oral cancer which hitherto has not been largely reported. There is a paucity of information on the genetic determinism for familial oral cancer predisposition. Therefore, we investigated constitutional chromosome abnormalities and bleomycin‐induced chromosome sensitivity of 7 familial and 10 sporadic oral cancer patients and 14 unaffected family members (first‐degree relatives) to determine whether these factors could give any clues regarding cancer‐predisposing factors. Neither the oral cancer patients nor the unaffected family members showed any constitutional chromosomal abnormalities. However, with regard to bleomycin sensitivity, there was significant difference between the oral‐cancer patients and unaffected relatives. The mean b/c value was 1.68 ± 0.48 for familial OC patients, 1.12 ± 0.36 for sporadic OC patients and 0.52 ± 0.18 for the unaffected family members ( p < 0.001). A noteworthy observation was that one unaffected family member also showed bleomycin hypersensitivity and expressed a mean b/c value of 1.32, at the initiation of the study. That patient later developed oral carcinoma. This clearly demonstrates that mutagen hypersensitivity among unaffected relatives in OC families may be related to cancer predisposition. The mutagen sensitivity study is being continued in a larger series of subjects, for the development of a cytogenetic marker for prediction of cancer susceptibility. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.