Measurement of DNA damage in bladder cancer patients by alkaline comet assay

Abstract

Background Bladder cancer is the most common cancer of the urinary tract. DNA damage is responsible for genomic instability, which is a hallmark of bladder carcinogenesis. Cigarette smoking induced DNA damage is one of the major risk factors associated with this disease. Methods We used the alkaline comet assay to measure DNA damage in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 38 bladder cancer patients and 26 healthy control subjects. All subjects provided personal information, including smoking history. DNA damage was quantified by calculating the %tail DNA (%TD) and olive tail moment (OTM) parameter. Results It was found that patients (%TD 20.09 ± 1.67 and OTM 31.31 ± 2.82) had significant DNA damage compared with control subjects (%TD 2.70 ± 0.48 and OTM 9.34 ± 1.30). Besides, patients with extensive smoking history had higher DNA damage compared to non-smoker patients. Conclusion This is the first attempt to use alkaline comet assay to evaluate DNA damage in Bangladeshi bladder cancer patients. The results of this study may emphasize to use ACA for routine DNA damage detection, which could be used as a prognostic biomarker of bladder cancer.