Micronucleus frequency in peripheral blood lymphocytes and exfoliated buccal cells of untreated cancer patients

High Micronucleus Frequency in Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes of Untreated Cancer Patients Irrespective of Gender, Smoking and Cancer Sites

“…In our patients (consisting of ~ 43% females), and in controls (consisting of 70% females), gender had no significant effect on the analyzed MN frequency. This finding is in agreement with previous reports where the influence of gender on MN was studied and no correlation was found (Arlett et al 1989;Yildirim et al 2006).…”

“…The effect of cigarette smoking on the MN frequency was also evaluated in cancer patients. Thus, Duffaund et al (1997) and Yildirim et al (2006) reported no significant difference between MN values in smokers and non-smokers in the studied cancer patients. Our results show that cigarette smoking did not affect the MN frequency in any cancer patients and any healthy controls.…”

Buccal Epithelium, Cigarette Smoking, and Lung Cancer: Review of the Literature

“…Their cohort included 14 male smoking patients with lung cancer who were found to have a high frequency of MN in comparison to the pooled male control cohort: 16.79 ± 2.59 ( p < 0.0001) versus 6.77 ± 0.59. There was no confounding effect of age, sex or smoking [30] . Of note, the two latter studies share the limitation of pooled data, including other malignancies and tissue markers than lung cancer and buccal epithelium, respectively.…”

“…The classifier ability to detect cancer cases was independent from the tumor subtype, stage or size [28] . In another approach, Yildirim et al [30] used the micronucleus (MN) test for buccal cell analysis. The MN consists of chromosomes or chromosomal fragments that do not get incorporated into the daughter nuclei during cell division, and is, thus, a measure of chromosomal aberration and genomic instability [29] .…”

Micronuclei and sialic acid as markers of genotoxic damage in tobacco-related oral lesions

“…There is no unequivocal evidence pointing to the occurrence of micronuclei as being produced by tobacco-related agents or due to genetic progression of normal state to premalignant state to malignant lesions. Though micronuclei are a marker of genotoxic damage indicating transformation of normal mucosa to premalignant lesion, and subsequently malignancy, they may be present irrespective of the tobacco usage as reported by Yildirim et al 25 and Armen et al 26 in whose studies even those without habits developed carcinoma and showed increase in number of micronuclei. We thus speculate that micronuclei and not the history of the habit may be a reliable factor in quantification of genotoxic damage to nuclei and DNA.…”