[And what about doctors? Associations between spontaneous chromosomal aberrations and cancer morbidity in healthcare workers].

Abstract

Healthcare workers may be occupationally exposed to low dose rate radiation or different chemicals during their work. There are strong associations between the increased frequency of spontaneous chromosomal aberrations in blood lymphocytes and the risk of cancer. Cytogenetic tests were conducted on 1240 healthy medical workers and cancer incidence was followed up between 1997-2018. Both structural and numerical chromosome aberrations were evaluated and the results were compared taking into account gender, age, and smoking. The frequency of aberrant cells was significantly higher in smoker males than in non-smokers (p=0.009). Within the same study period, there was no significant difference in chromosome aberrations between the potentially exposed group of workers and the control group. Among 82 cancer cases (6.6%) the most common tumors were breast (16), colon (12), lung (7) and thyroid gland cancers (7). Our analysis showed 7.3% cancer occurrence among smokers compared to 6.2% among non-smokers. These results suggest that in our cases cytogenetic effects of smoking are more deleterious than occupational exposures.