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Micronuclei in peripheral blood lymphocytes as a possible cancer risk biomarker:a cohort study of occupationally exposed workers in Croatia

Aim.To describe the cohort of Croatia workers monitored for micronuclei in peripheral blood lymphocytes and to assess cancer risk predictivity of micronuclei in this cohort. Methods.Between 1985 and 1999 peripheral blood lymphocytes were analysed in a cohort of 200 subjects occupationally exposed to genotoxic agents. The in vitro micronucleus assay was used. The follow-up for cancer incidence and for mortality was performed through the Croatia National Cancer Registry and through the records of occupational medicine physicians. Micronucleated cell frequency values were compared by Kruska-Wallis test. Results. The median micronucleated cell frequency value in the cohort was 49 (30-79) per thousands cells. Micronucleated cell frequency was significantly higher in males than in females, which could be attributed to the different distribution of exposure. Micronucleated cell frequency increased with age for both sexes. Smoking habit had no influence on micronucleated cell frequency. The follow-up identified four cancer cases. Three of the four cancer cases belonged to the highest micronucleated cell frequency tertile. Conclusion. The findings of our study are consistent with previously published literature. Due to small number of cancer cases, cancerrisk predictivity of micronuclei in the cohort of Croatian workers was not estimated. However, the Croatian cohort will contribute to the pooled analyses of the current European study of cancer risk predictivity of micronuclei. Participation of Croatia in international molecular epidemiology projects and collaboration between cancer epidemiologists and cytogeneticicts provides a new working environment for preventive medicine and policy formation in order to increase health standards.

micronucleus assay; cancer risk; occupational exposure; biomarker; molecular epidemiology

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