Mutagen sensitivity in colorectal cancer

AIM To investigate DNA damage and/or repair capability of sporadic colorectal cancer patients. METHODS Bleomycin induced mutagen sensitivity was used to measure chromatid breaks of 52 cancer patients and 76 controls. RESULTS When exposed to Bleomycin, cancer patients had more chromatid breaks (0.841b/c) than controls (0.732b/c). The frequency of sensitive class was higher in cancer patients ( 55.8% ) than in controls (35.5%). The size and infiltration depth of tumor were positively related to the mutagen sensitivity. Cancer patients, who had first degree relative affected by cancer, were younger (50.0years) than those who hadn't (59.1 years). 1p32 tem, 1q32 33, 5q21 31, 7p15, 14q22 24 were the most frequently broken points in colorectal cancers. CONCLUSION ① Mutagen sensitivity is a simple and credible marker to evaluate the susceptibility to colorectal cancer; ② mutagen sensitivity is an inheritable character; ③ mutagen sensitivity is related to the progression of the tumor; ④ the development of colorectal cancer is related to non randomly distributed chromosome breaks.