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Abstract
Background:Tobacco is one of the main reasons behind the occurrence of oral cancer. Oral cancer, even though being the tenth most common cancer in the world, gets diagnosed at an advanced stage and ends up with poor prognosis. So early diagnosis is the need of the hour. Our study aimed to evaluate the genotoxic changes in patients with different tobacco habits using buccal exfoliated cells. Methods:Buccal smears were taken from smokers (30), smokeless tobacco users (30), combined tobacco users (30) and controls (30) with clinically normal oral mucosa. All the smears were stained with Papanicolaou stain and Feulgen stain and viewed under light microscope for the evaluation of mean number of micronuclei, mean micronuclei per cell, frequency of cells showing micronuclei, nuclear area, cytoplasmic area, nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio. Results:Mean number of micronuclei, mean micronuclei per cell, frequency of cells showing micronuclei, and nuclear area were significantly increased in tobacco users than controls, especially in combined tobacco users. Nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio was increased and cytoplasmic area was decreased in tobacco users than controls. Conclusion:Tobacco in any consumable form is genotoxic. Smoking and smokeless tobacco, when consumed together, synergistically causes higher genetic damage. Different tobacco habits have different deleterious effects on oral mucosa, and these effects are more pronounced when the patients have combined habits. So, detecting the genotoxic changes through exfoliative cytology can be used as a simple yet reliable marker for early detection of carcinogenesis.
Highlights
Oral cancer is one of the top three cancers in India accounting for 30% of all the cancers
All the smears were stained with Papanicolaou stain and Feulgen stain and viewed under light microscope for the evaluation of mean number of micronuclei, mean micronuclei per cell, frequency of cells showing micronuclei, nuclear area, cytoplasmic area, nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio
Among the participants habituated to tobacco, all the parameters related to micronuclei were highest in the combined tobacco users (Group III) followed by smokeless tobacco users (Group II), and smokers (Group I) (p
Summary
Oral cancer is one of the top three cancers in India accounting for 30% of all the cancers. Buccal cells, being the first barrier, represent a preferred target site for early genotoxic events induced by carcinogenic agents through inhalation or ingestion route and are capable of metabolizing proximate carcinogens to reactive products (Torres-Bugarin et al, 2014). These changes include formation of micronuclei, and alterations in nuclear size, cell size, nuclear cytoplasmic ratio, nuclear shape, nuclear discontinuity, optical density and nuclear texture. The present study was undertaken to assess these genotoxic changes like micronuclei frequency, nuclear area, cytoplasmic area and the nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio of the squames from clinically normal buccal mucosa of tobacco users (smokers, tobacco chewers and combined habit group) and non-users of tobacco and to compare and correlate the findings. Detecting the genotoxic changes through exfoliative cytology can be used as a simple yet reliable marker for early detection of carcinogenesis
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