Title: Chromosome translocations in workers exposed to benzene.

Authors: McHale, Cliona M; Lan, Qing; Corso, Chiara; Li, Guilan; Zhang, Luoping; Vermeulen, Roel; Curry, John D; Shen, Min; Turakulov, Rustam; Higuchi, Russell; Germer, Soren; Yin, Songnian; Rothman, Nathaniel; Smith, Martyn T

Published In J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr, (2008)

Abstract: As benzene has been linked with elevated risk of both acute myeloid leukemia and lymphoma, we explored the effect of benzene exposure on levels of t(8;21), t(15;17), and t(14;18) translocations. Circulating lymphocytes of normal individuals also often contain t(14;18). Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that 37 workers with benzene exposure had a decreased level of t(14;18) in their blood with only 16.2% having 10 or more copies of the t(14;18) BCL-2/IgH fusion gene/microg DNA, as opposed to 55% of 20 controls (P = .0063 by Fisher's exact test). This decline may be related to the immunotoxicity to specific subtypes of circulating B-lymphocytes, but the data do not support the use of t(14;18) as a biomarker of increased lymphoma risk in benzene-exposed populations. None of 88 individuals (31 controls and 57 exposed) exhibited detectable t(8;21) transcripts, and while t(15;17) transcripts were detected in two individuals, the result is inconclusive as one was exposed and the other was unexposed.

PubMed ID: 18648008

MeSH Terms: Adult; Benzene/toxicity*; Carcinogens/toxicity*; Case-Control Studies; Chromosomes, Human/genetics*; Female; Genes, bcl-2/genetics; Humans; Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains/genetics; Lymphoma/chemically induced*; Lymphoma/genetics*; Male; Occupational Exposure*; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Translocation, Genetic/drug effects*