Are thyroid cancer patients sensitive to ionising radiation?

To determine the ionising radiation sensitivity of peripheral blood lymphocytes in a group of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients.

A total of 53 thyroid cancer patients (26 women and 27 men) and 50 donors (23 women and 27 men) were included in the study. The cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay (CBMN) in G0 peripheral blood lymphocytes was carried out using the cytochalasin B technique. Four cultures were established per each donor, two were irradiated with 0.5 Gy 137Cs g-rays, while the other two remained untreated.

No significant differences were observed in the frequency of binucleated cells with micronuclei (BNMN) between patients and controls, for both spontaneous and after the irradiation frequencies. Nevertheless, a positive and significant correlation was found between the frequencies of both spontaneous and after irradiation DNA damage, for control and patient groups.

We have found that DTC patients do not present particular sensitivity to ionising radiation when an in vitro treatment is performed in G0 stage of the cell cycle, but this result does not discard the hypothesis about an increased sensitivity in other stages of the cell cycle in DTC patients.