title: Normal sister chromatid exchange in lymphocytes from patients with multiple epidermal cancer?
abstract: Exposure to toxins in the environment and due to personal habits, e.g., tobacco smoking, may increase the rate of spontaneous sister chromatid exchange (SCE). The SCE in lymphocytes from a group of 31 patients with multiple epidermal cancer, who in the past had been exposed to various skin carcinogens, as a whole exceeded that of a control group--matched by sex, age, and smoking habits--but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.08). The individual SCE in these patients was also statistically independent of the nature of the carcinogenic exposure. We were unable to detect correlations between the SCE and UVC-radiation induced DNA synthesis, UVC-radiation tolerance, or rate of X-ray damage repair. This suggests that the molecular mechanisms involved in SCE induction and in repair of radiation damage are basically independent.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004817:Epidermis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012854:Sister Chromatid Exchange; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology