[Genetic etiology of esophageal cancer--III. The spontaneous and mitomycin-C (MMC) induced sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) and chromosome aberrations in cultured lymphocytes from members of "high risk" and "low risk" esophageal cancer families in Linxian County].

The spontaneous and mitomycin-c (MMC) induced sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) and chromosome aberrations in cultured lymphocytes from members of "high risk" and "low risk" esophageal cancer families in Linxian County were studied. The results showed that the frequencies of the spontaneous SCE of "high risk" and "low risk" esophageal cancer groups were 7.8 +/- 0.25 and 8.3 +/- 0.25/per cell. There were no difference between these two groups (P greater than 0.5). The frequencies of the SCE induced by MMC in "high risk" and "low risk" esophageal cancer groups were 43.8 +/- 2.4 and 21.6 +/- 1.1/per cell. There were noteworthy difference (P less than 0.001). However, the frequencies of the spontaneous and MMC induced chromosome aberrations in "high risk" cancer families were higher than those of the "low risk" ones.