Increased sister chromatid exchange frequencies in lymphocytes of nurses handling cytostatic drugs.

Abstract
In oncology units, personnel handling [cancer] chemotherapeutic drugs may occasionally be exposed to small amounts of genotoxic agents. This exposure was the cause of the increased frequencies of sister chromatid exchange (SCE) observed in nurses in daily contact with cytostatics (N [no.] = 20, mean SCE per cell .+-. SE 9.4 .+-. 0.3) as compared to a group of office workers (N = 10, mean SCE per cell 8.1 .+-. 0.3). The oncology nurses had a higher SCE frequency than other hospital nurses (N = 10, mean SCE per cell 8.7 .+-. 0.2), but this difference was not statistically significant. SCE of patients under chemotherapy was .apprx. 5-fold higher (mean SCE/cell 36.8 .+-. 0.6) than those of healthy subjects.