Radiation injury in a patient with unusually high sensitivity to radiation

Radiation therapy is usually given with the assumption that interindividual variations in radiosensitivity are small, except for some patients with hereditary diseases associated with increased sensitivity. Recently, we observed radiation induced pericarditis in a breast carcinoma patient, in whom clinical signs, blood counts and chromosome analysis after in vitro irradiation of blood suggested a state of unusually high radiosensitivity. No evidence of constitutional chromosome abnormality was found in karyotypic analysis with the G-banding technique.