Abdallah J M, Lombardi D P, Kirsch I R
National Cancer Institute--Navy Medical Oncology Branch, Bethesda, Maryland 20889-5105, USA.
J Clin Invest. 1995 Dec;96(6):2744-7. doi: 10.1172/JCI118343.
We have studied the effect of chemotherapy on the level of a particular kind of genetic instability in patients with Hodgkin's disease. The particular type of genetic instability assayed is exemplified by trans-rearrangements between two (rather than within one) T cell antigen receptor. 16 patients were studied during their course of treatment. Presentation samples were available for 13 of these patients; 9 of them showed an increase in the level of trans-rearrangements during their exposure to chemotherapeutic agents (P < 0.043). All patients for whom posttherapy samples were available (10 out of 16) showed a return to baseline levels of trans-rearrangements 1-5 mo after completion of therapy (P < 0.03). Thus, this assay appears to be a marker for the "destabilizing" effects of certain chemotherapeutic agents.
