Studies on sister chromatid exchanges in patients with Hodgkin's disease

Sister chromatid exchange frequencies were analyzed in bone marrow cells and in stimulated peripheral blood lymphocytes from 20 patients with Hodgkin's disease. Sister chromatid exchange studies were also carried out in the bone marrow of eight and peripheral blood of 11 normal subjects separately. Among the patients, ten were newly diagnosed and ten patients were survivors who had received therapy 30-64 months prior to studies. The mean sister chromatid exchange frequencies in bone marrow and peripheral blood of untreated patients were 3.93 +/- 0.7/cell and 4.09 +/- 0.91/cell, respectively, which were not significantly different from those of normal subjects (3.22 +/- 0.7/cell and 5.16 +/- 1.3/cell in bone marrow and peripheral blood, respectively). The mean sister chromatid exchange frequencies in bone marrow and peripheral blood in five of the untreated patients 3-4 months after initial therapy and in a treated (30-64 months after therapy) group were close to the sister chromatid exchange values of the untreated group. Analysis of the distribution of exchanges per chromosome or chromosome groups showed a nonrandom distribution of exchanges in chromosomes #1, #2, and #3, and in E-, F-, and G-group chromosomes in the normal controls and in Hodgkin's disease patients.