Alkaline comet assay study with breast cancer patients: evaluation of baseline and chemotherapy-induced DNA damage in non-target cells

Abstract

The sensitivity of the alkaline comet assay for the evaluation of baseline and treatment-induced DNA damage in white blood cells of breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy according to three conventional anthracycline- and cyclophosphamide-containing protocols was investigated. Additionally, baseline DNA damage in cancer patients was compared with the levels of DNA damage recorded in healthy women. Altogether 30 patients with diagnosed breast cancer and 30 female blood donors with no known familial history of breast cancer participated in the study. Alkaline comet assay was performed according to standard protocol and DNA migration in peripheral blood leukocytes was measured by a computer-based image analysis system. For each subject the frequency of "damaged" cells, i.e., long-tailed nuclei (LTN) with tail length exceeding 95th percentile for the considered parameter among controls, is also reported. Breast cancer patients had significantly increased background levels of DNA damage in their peripheral blood leukocytes as compared to healthy women. Prior to the chemotherapy, a majority of patients showed a statistically significant increase in the number of LTN compared to healthy blood donors. Marked interindividual variations in baseline DNA damage among patients were recorded, some of them related to the disease stage and status. The present study confirmed the alkaline comet assay as a sensitive technique able to detect significantly elevated DNA migration in blood cells of patients already one hour after completion of the first cycle of chemotherapy. Administration of antineoplastic drugs in three chemotherapy protocols studied induced a similar increase of primary DNA damage in nontarget cells. The evaluation of the LTN frequencies indicates the best response to the protocol containing cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF). Our results point to the significance of simultaneous evaluation of DNA migration and frequency of LTN in the same subject and approved the use of alkaline comet assay as a suitable method for the routine detection of critical DNA lesions produced after administration of antineoplastic drugs in the clinical settings.

Relationship between Genotoxic Effects of Breast Cancer Treatments and Patient Basal DNA Integrity

“…A significant increase in DNA damage was observed in all post-treatment samples when compared to pre-treatment samples. This finding is in agreement with previous reports, 5,15,27,37 which have indicated that the administration of antineoplastic drugs and radiotherapy are accompanied by significant DNA damage to nucleated blood cells. The previous data and the present results support the usefulness of the comet assay as a sensitive technique to evaluate damage caused by radiotherapy or chemotherapy.…”

“…9,10 In several studies, the authors did not find an association between age and DNA damage when using the comet assay. 5,28,29,35,36 In the present study, no association between levels of DNA damage and age (> 50 years or ≤ 50 years) was found.…”

“…4 Indeed, following in vivo exposure to antineoplastic drugs, diverse lesions in DNA are induced. 5 In fact, several studies have shown that…”

Forgotten public health impacts of cancer – an overview

“…Results indicated that even exposure to low concentrations of antineoplastic drugs might affect these drugs are often used in combination, in order to achieve additive and/or synergistic effects on tumour cells resulting from their differing modes of action. However, most, if not all, of these chemical agents are generally nonselective and along with tumour cells, normal cells may undergo cyto/genotoxic damage (26,(36)(37)(38)(39).…”

“…However, if unrepaired, DNA lesions may give rise to chromosome aberrations, which are able to interfere with the transcription and replication of DNA, resulting in cytotoxic and mutagenic effects. Due to all these characteristics, growing evidence suggests that secondary neoplasms may arise as a consequence of chemotherapy (37,(40)(41)(42)(43).…”