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Chromosome studies on lymphocytes of patients under cytostatic therapy

I. Conventional chromosome studies in cytostatic interval therapy

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Summary

Chromosome studies were performed on lymphocyte cultures from the peripheral blood of 43 patients undergoing a cytostatic interval therapy with a regimen of methyl-CCNU, 5-fluorouracil, and vincristine. From a total of 229 individual examinations (30 prior to the start of therapy, the rest at different stages of the therapy) more than 23 000 metaphases were analysed for structural chromosome aberrations (i.e., gaps, breaks, and interchanges).

A distinct increase in the aberration rate over the level in controls (i.e., the same patients and other patients of the same group prior to the start of therapy) was observed at all phases of therapy in all patients under study. This increase was not only correlated with the number of therapy rounds, but was also dependent on the particular composition of the drug regimen applied at the different phases of therapy. Furthermore, even 4 weeks after 5-day courses of therapy the aberration rates, although lower than immediately after drug administration, clearly exceeded those of controls in most cases. There was no distinct quantitative difference, but there was a clear qualitative difference between data gained from 48-h cultures and those obtained after 72-h lymphocyte cultures. A rather high interindividual variability of aberration rates and spectra was established in different patients at the same phases of therapy.

From these results the conclusion was drawn that chromosome studies in patients exposed to mutagenic chemicals are a suitable and reliable method of gaining insight into the clastogenicity of these substances in man (i.e., under the real conditions present in the human organism), if all the limitations of this method are seriously borne in mind.

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Abbreviations

methyl-CCNU:

1-[2-chloroethyl-3-(4-methylcyclohexyl)]-1-nitrosourea

FU:

5-fluorouracil

VC:

vincristine

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Humangenetik und Anthropologie der Universität, Bismarckstr. 10, D-8520, Erlangen, Federal Republic of Germany

    E. Gebhart & L. Lösing

  2. Chirurgische Klinik mit Poliklinik der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Maximiliansplatz, D-8520, Erlangen, Federal Republic of Germany

    F. Wopfner

Authors
  1. E. Gebhart
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  2. L. Lösing
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  3. F. Wopfner
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Dedicated to Prof. Dr. A. Barthelmeß on the occasion of his 70th birthday

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Gebhart, E., Lösing, L. & Wopfner, F. Chromosome studies on lymphocytes of patients under cytostatic therapy. Hum. Genet. 55, 53–63 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00329127

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00329127

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