Mutagen sensitivity and p53 expression in colorectal cancer in China

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Abstract
OBJECTIVE This study was designed to investigate DNA damage and/or repair capability, non-random chromatid breakage, and p53 expression in patients with colorectal cancer. METHODS The bleomycin sensitivity assay was used in a case-control study to compare the DNA damage repair system between colorectal cancer patients and controls. G-banding was used to search for non-random chromatid breaks. Immunocytochemistry was used to investigate p53 expression in tumour tissues and adjacent normal tissues. RESULTS It was found that cases typically had a higher number of chromosome breaks than controls (0.84v 0.69 breaks/cell, pCONCLUSION Patients with colorectal cancer show increased bleomycin induced chromatid breaks and may have minor DNA repair deficiencies. p53 aberration is an early event in the development of colorectal cancer, but no definite correlation is found between p53 overexpression and mutagen sensitivity.