High incidence of chromosome aberrations after radiochemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease: a report of a case and a review of the literature.

To emphasize the importance of information obtained by conventional cytogenetic tests, in this study we will present a case report showing the development of HD in a young engineer of medical radiology, who had been professionally exposed to ionizing radiation during 4 years. Bio-dosimeter data and chromosomal aberration analysis made in a group of colleagues working in the same ionizing conditions excluded the possibility that she was overexposed to ionizing radiation, but retroactive analysis showed that at the time of employment she had a moderately increased level of chromosomal aberrations in peripheral blood lymphocytes (4.6%), with higher than normal incidence of chromatid breaks (22 x 10(-3) per cell) and dicentric fragments (5 x 10(-3) per cell). After the treatment of lymphoma by chemotherapy in combination with radiotherapy she also demonstrated a very high post-therapeutic level of chromosomal aberrations (21.5%), which consisted mostly of increased dicentric fragments (65 x 10(-3) per cell). Although her illness is now clinically cured, the observed genotoxic changes point to a greater risk for delayed complications after HD, emphasizing the necessity for further continuous survey of this patient.