Telomere length in lymphoblast cell lines derived from clinically radiosensitive cancer patients

Approximately 1-5 percent of cancer patients suffer from significant side effects in normal tissue after radiotherapy (RT). Although RT is an effective cancer therapy, treatment dose intensities are restricted to minimize the incidence of such normal tissue reactions. Therefore, most patients receive lower dose intensities than can be tolerated in normal tissue. A primary aim for radiation oncology is to identify radiosensitive (RS) individuals prior to treatment. Such predictive ability should result in an improvement in tumor control rates and/or a reduction in the incidence of RT side effects. Recent evidence suggests a link between RS and telomere length. A positive correlation between cellular RS and telomere length in a cohort of breast cancer patients has been reported. Furthermore, individuals with cancer-prone recessive RS syndromes, such as ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) and Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS), have shortened telomeres. To determine whether the association between telomere length and ...