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. 1999 Feb;79(5-6):744–747. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6690119

The contribution of DNA ploidy to radiation sensitivity in human tumour cell lines

J L Schwartz 1, J Murnane 2, R R Weichselbaum 3
PMCID: PMC2362676  PMID: 10070863

Abstract

The contribution of DNA ploidy to radiation sensitivity was investigated in a group of eight human tumour cell lines. As previous studies suggest, while more aneuploid tumours tend to be more radioresistant, there is no significant relationship between ploidy and radiation sensitivity (SF2). The failure to observe a significant effect of ploidy on radiation sensitivity is due to the complex and multifactorial basis of radiation sensitivity. When we determined the relationship between survival and radiation-induced chromosome aberration frequency, a measure independent of most other modifiers of sensitivity, we observed a direct relationship between ploidy and mean lethal aberration frequency. The mean lethal frequency of aberrations increased from about 1 for diploid cells to about 2 for tetraploid cells. The mean lethal frequency of aberrations was independent of DNA repair variations. These observations demonstrate that changes in DNA ploidy are an important contributor to radiation sensitivity variations in human tumour cell lines. Therefore, any battery of predictive assays should include DNA ploidy measurements. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign

Keywords: predictive assay, DNA ploidy, radiotherapy, chromosome aberrations

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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