G0 and G2 chromosomal assays in the evaluation of radiosensitivity in a cohort of Italian breast cancer patients

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of malignancy in female patients and radio-treatment is the conventional therapy even if a great number of studies reported that enhanced sensitivity to ionizing radiation as measured as chromosome effects is present in a significant proportion of cancer patients, including breast cancer ones. In this study we analysed whether peripheral blood lymphocytes from sporadic BC patients and healthy subjects showed a different sensitivity to ionizing radiation and whether cytogenetic radiosensitivity may serve as a breast cancer risk biomarker. To test this hypothesis, the in vitro radiation sensitivity was measured by using both G0 and G2 chromosome radiosensitivity assays, on 46 subjects (23 BC patients and 23 healthy subjects). Results show that cancer patients are more radiosensitive than healthy controls and that G2 assay could be more appropriate to define the individual radiosensitivity if compared to G0 assay.