Relationships between acute reactions to radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients and parameters of radiation-induced DNA damage and repair in their lymphocytes.
OBJECTIVE
To study the relationship between lymphocyte radiosensitivity measured in vitro and acute reactions to radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer.


METHODS
Acute reactions were measured in 34 patients using the Dische scale. Lymphocyte radiosensitivity was measured using the alkaline comet assay, the micronucleus assay, the nuclear division index and morphological assessment of apoptosis.


RESULTS
There was a weak, statistically significant correlation between in vitro radiosensitivity measured as the rate of DNA damage repair and the cumulative radiation dose exerting the maximum acute reaction scored (r = -0.366, p = 0.039, n = 34). Subgroup analyses showed that for patients with a low level of radiation-induced DNA damage there was a statistically significant relationship between lymphocyte radiosensitivity measured as inhibition of proliferation and acute toxicity (r = -0.621, p = 0.007, n = 18). For patients with a high level of residual DNA damage, there was a relationship between lymphocyte radiosensitivity measured using the micronucleus assay and acute toxicity (r = -0.597, p = 0.023, n = 14).


CONCLUSIONS
Combining two measures of radiosensitivity improves the ability to correlate in vitro lymphocyte radiosensitivity and acute radiotherapy toxicity data.
Rzeszowska-Wolny
J
J
Department of Experimental and Clinical Radiobiology, M. Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute, Wybrze_ze Armii Krajowej 15, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland. jwolny@io.gliwice.pl
Palyvoda
O
O
Polanska
J
J
Wygoda
A
A
Hancock
R
R
D020552:Comet Assay; D053904:DNA Breaks, Single-Stranded / Q000528:radiation effects; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000528:radiation effects* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015162:Micronucleus Tests; D011836:Radiation Tolerance; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects