[Genetic polymorphism of enzymes metabolizing xenobiotics as a factor in susceptibility to tumor development].

Organisms are exposed to a large number of xenobiotics (compounds foreign to the body), such as drugs, pesticides, natural food constituents and so on. To deal with these, usually lipophilic substances, a range of biotransformation enzyme systems are available. Experimental data have shown that metabolic activation and detoxification play an important role in chemical carcinogenesis. There is a considerable interindividual genetic variability in these pathways which might explain the differences in cancer susceptibility and might ultimately enable the identification of people at increased risk and to offer individualized cancer prevention. Recently, molecular genetic bases of many polymorphic enzyme activities involved in xenobiotics metabolism have been elucidated. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief review of recent findings concerning the association of genetically determined metabolic variants with different risks of environmentally induced cancer. (Tab. 6, Fig. 1, Ref. 30.)