[G-banded chromosome analysis of bone marrow and peripheral blood cells from small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients].

Detailed G-banded chromosome analysis was carried out on the bone marrow and/or PHA-stimulated peripheral blood cells from 17 SCLC patients (14 males and 3 females), who were diagnosed cytologically or pathologically or both. Twelve of them had no prior treatment and 16 had a heavy smoking history. High chromosome aberration rates were found in the bone marrow (31% for average structural aberration rate and 63% for numerical aberration rate) and peripheral blood cells (37% for average structural aberration rate and 49% for numerical aberration rate). The smoking index, as a whole, was positively correlated to the structural chromosome aberration rate, indicating that smoking is one of the most important environmental factors in causing chromosome aberrations. But some patients gave a high aberration rate dis-proportional to their smoking index, suggesting that genetically determined susceptibility to smoking or even other factors also play an important role. The structural chromosome aberrations in the bone marrow and peripheral blood cells were mainly clustered on chromosome 3 and chromosomes 1, 9 and 11, respectively. The aberration types were manifold and complicated. No consistent or specific aberration as del 3p14-23 for SCLC was found in this study.