Analysis of the results of the micronucleus test in patients presenting upper digestive tract cancers and in non‐cancerous subjects

Abstract

A micronucleus test was performed on 75 subjects of whom 38 presented with cancer of the upper digestive tract and 37 were free of disease; the absence of cancerous or pre-cancerous lesions in this latter group was confirmed by endoscopy and vital staining. The daily levels of alcohol and tobacco consumption of the 75 subjects were determined by precise questioning: 78% of the non-cancerous subjects smoked less than 10 g of tobacco per day whereas 79% of the cancer patients smoked 10 g or more daily. The alcohol intake of 78% of the non-cancerous subjects and 63% of the cancer patients was less than 101 ml per day. Only 10% of the cancer patients had combined daily intake levels corresponding to the threshold of sensitivity of the micronucleus test as defined by previous studies. The mean frequency of micronucleated buccal cells was 0.26% in the cancer patients and 0.13% in the non-cancerous subjects. All non-cancerous patients presented a negative test. Only 5% of the cancer patients presented a micronucleated cell frequency above 1% and could thus be considered as positive. It thus appears that the micronucleus test was not significantly positive in our population of 38 cancer patients.

Comparative Study of Exfoliated Oral Mucosal Cell Micronuclei Frequency in Normal, Precancerous and Malignant Epithelium

“…The induction in vivo and in vitro, of micronucleated cells by carcinogens and mutagens is a sign of the genotoxic effect of such substances (Mandard et al 1987). The MN assay in exfoliated cells is an innovative genotoxicity technique, which holds promise for the study of epithelial carcinogens (Tolbert et al 1992).…”

Clinical application of micronucleus test in exfoliated buccal cells: A systematic review and metanalysis

“…The MN assay in buccal cells was also applied in groups of patients with tumors in different regions of the body other than head and neck to explore the suitability of this biomarker as an index of cancer risk/susceptibility (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31). In addition, an increase of MN frequency was observed in a number of studies on diabetes (31)(32)(33)(34) and different chronic diseases (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40).…”

Micronucleus count in nasal epithelial cells from patients with chronic rhinosinusitis and polyps

“… 15 , 16 Also, the present findings converge with data described in the literature for other diseases in which a higher MN count has been reported in the target cells of diseased patients as compared to disease-free controls. 11 Mandard et al 17 found an MN count that was twice as high in the oral mucosa of digestive tract patients vs. controls. Chakrabarti and Dutta 18 reported an increase in MN count that was proportional to the degree of malignancy detected in routine cervical smears.…”