Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Radiation Sciences department, Medical Research Institute (MRI), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
2
Department of Biochemistry, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University.
3
Department of Eperimental and Clinical internal Medicine, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University.
4
Department of Radiology, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University
5
Department of Experimental and Clinical Surgery, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University
6
Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, Faculty of Medical Applied Sciences, Al-Azhar University- Palestine
7
Department of Radiology, faculty of Applied Medical Science, October 6 University.
8
Department of Cancer management and research, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University
9
Department of clinical oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University
10
Department of Radiation Science, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University
Abstract
Background: Ionizing radiation is a major DNA damaging agent. One of the most common sources of exposure is through medical diagnostics or treatments such as cancer radiotherapy. Aim: This study aims to assess the radiation-induced changes in the expression of DNA repair and cell cycle regulation genes (POLH, PCNA, DDB2, and XPC) in the blood of breast cancer patients and to evaluate their potential as predictive biomarkers for treatment responses. Methods: In this study, the levels of circulating PCNA, POLH, XPC, and DDB2 were evaluated in 51 females: 31 cancer patients and 20 healthy volunteers as a control group. The genes were extracted from whole blood samples and cDNA was synthesized; RT-qPCR was used to assay the expression pattern of these genes. Results: Circulating DDB2 showed a significant difference in the relative expression among the three studied groups. Also, there was a significant difference in the relative expression of circulating DDB2 in the pre-radiotherapy and post-radiotherapy groups relative to the control group. Also, relative to the control group, the circulating levels of the four genes were higher in the pre-radiotherapy group to about double that in the post-radiotherapy group. The four genes combination was capable to discriminate the pre-radiotherapy group from the post-radiotherapy group significantly. Conclusion: The relative expression of these four genes as radiation-responsive genes that are involved in cell cycle regulation and DNA repair could be changed due to radiotherapy. Also, their circulating levels in breast cancer patients could be promising predictive biomarkers for radiotherapy responses.
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