TY - JOUR AU - Paz, Márcia Fernanda Correia Jardim AU - de Alencar, Marcus Vinícius Oliveira Barros AU - Gomes Junior, Antonio Luiz AU - da Conceição Machado, Keylla AU - Islam, Muhammad Torequl AU - Ali, Eunus S. AU - Shill, Manik Chandra AU - Ahmed, Md. Iqbal AU - Uddin, Shaikh Jamal AU - da Mata, Ana Maria Oliveira Ferreira AU - de Carvalho, Ricardo Melo AU - da Conceição Machado, Kátia AU - Sobral, André Luiz Pinho AU - da Silva, Felipe Cavalcanti Carneiro AU - de Castro e Souza, João Marcelo AU - Arcanjo, Daniel Dias Rufino AU - Ferreira, Paulo Michel Pinheiro AU - Mishra, Siddhartha Kumar AU - da Silva, Juliana AU - de Carvalho Melo-Cavalcante, Ana Amélia PY - 2018 M3 - Original Research TI - Correlations between Risk Factors for Breast Cancer and Genetic Instability in Cancer Patients—A Clinical Perspective Study JO - Frontiers in Genetics UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2017.00236 VL - 8 SN - 1664-8021 N2 - Molecular epidemiological studies have identified several risk factors linking to the genes and external factors in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. In this sense, genetic instability caused by DNA damage and DNA repair inefficiencies are important molecular events for the diagnosis and prognosis of therapies. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze correlation between sociocultural, occupational, and lifestyle risk factors with levels of genetic instability in non-neoplastic cells of breast cancer patients. Total 150 individuals were included in the study that included 50 breast cancer patients submitted to chemotherapy (QT), 50 breast cancer patients submitted to radiotherapy (RT), and 50 healthy women without any cancer. Cytogenetic biomarkers for apoptosis and DNA damage were evaluated in samples of buccal epithelial and peripheral blood cells through micronuclei and comet assay tests. Elder age patients (61–80 years) had higher levels of apoptosis (catriolysis by karyolysis) and DNA damage at the diagnosis (baseline damage) with increased cell damage during QT and especially during RT. We also reported the increased frequencies of cytogenetic biomarkers in patients who were exposed to ionizing radiation as well as for alcoholism and smoking. QT and RT induced high levels of fragmentation (karyorrhexis) and nuclear dissolution (karyolysis) and DNA damage. Correlations were observed between age and karyorrhexis at diagnosis; smoking and karyolysis during RT; and radiation and karyolysis during QT. These correlations indicate that risk factors may also influence the genetic instability in non-neoplastic cells caused to the patients during cancer therapies. ER -