Chromosomal aberrations and cancer risk: results of a cohort study from Central Europe.

A high level of chromosomal aberrations in peripheral blood lymphocytes may be an early marker of cancer risk, but data on risk of specific cancers and types of chromosomal aberrations (chromosome type and chromatid type) are limited. A total of 6,430 healthy individuals from nine laboratories in Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia, included in chromosomal aberration surveys performed during 1978-2002, were followed up for cancer incidence or mortality for an average of 8.5 years; 200 cancer cases were observed.

[Sporadic chromosome aberrations in healthy individuals studied between 1986-2001].

In the second half of 2002, IARC for Central and Eastern European countries targeted studies on the relationship between chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and cancer risk. For these purposes we preliminarily investigated, under identical methodological circumstances, the base-line level of CAs in peripheral blood lymphocytes of 1414 healthy Hungarian persons between 1986 and 2001. The age and sex as biological, and smoking habit and residency (Budapest, industrial- and agricultural settlements) as environmental confounding factors were evaluated.