Micronuclei and Other Nuclear Anomalies in Exfoliated Buccal Mucosa Cells in Breast Cancer

Objectives: This study designed to assess the genomic instability between healthy women and women with breast cancer by means of buccal cells micronucleus (MN) cytome assay. Methods: The current study comprised 25 healthy women and 30 breast cancer patients. The exfoliated cells of buccal mucosa were taken after each participants rinse their mouths with tap water. The micronucleated cell and nuclear anomalies were analyzed under a total magnification of X1000, 2000 cells per subjects ( patient and control group) were scored and the frequencies of nuclear anomalies including MN, binucleates (BN), Pycnotic cell, karyolysis (KL) and karyorrhexis (KR) were evaluated in exfoliated buccal mucosa cells of women with primary BC and healthy women. Results: The frequencies of micronuclei and all nuclear anomalies in buccal cells of BC patients were significantly increased compared with the controls. (For Binucleates cells only, p<0.001; in all other cases, P < 0.0001). The mean scores of micronuclei and all nuclear anomalies for the breast cancer patients were (10.66±0.3845, 6.20±0.26, 8.40±0. 22, 18.40±0. 34, 19.13 ±0.40) were significantly higher than that of healthy women). Conclusion: Elevated frequency of micronucleated cells and all nuclear anomalies in the buccal mucosa of breast cancer patients reveal the genomic instability. These findings propose that the buccal MN-cytome assay can be used to measure both genotoxic and cytotoxic effects in primary cancer patients.