Chromosome aberrations induced in patients treated with telecobalt therapy for mammary carcinoma

The yields of dicentric and ring chromosomes were recorded during telecobalt therapy for mammary carcinoma. The data were fitted to a power or a quadratic function and were compared with those obtained in patients treated for ankylosing spondylitis and nuclear dockyard workers as well as with the results of an in vitro blood irradiation. As expected, the aberration yield for the same absorbed dose level is much greater after irradiation of ankylosing spondylitis than after irradiation for mammary carcinoma; lymphocytes exposed in vitro display the highest rate of aberration. A deviation of the aberrations observed in cells of the mammary carcinoma patients from the theoretical Poisson distribution also indicates that not all lymphocytes in the body had been exposed under these conditions.