Chromosomal damage and shortening of telomeres in cancer patients and healthy subjects

Impaired chromosome segregation during mitosis, inaccurate DNA damage response and excessive telomere shortening may all modulate the frequency of chromosomal aberrations (CAs) in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). There is evidence that increased frequency of structural CAs in PBL may be considered as a marker of enhanced cancer risk. In the present Thesis, an effect of variants in genes involved in mitotic checkpoint and DNA damage response on the inter-individual differences in CAs frequency in PBL was investigated. Considering the importance of disrupted telomere structure and its function in cancer biology, a link between telomere length and clinicopathological and molecular features of cancer patients was analysed. Furthermore, the relevance of telomere length and CAs frequency as markers of patients' survival was examined. The major outcomes of the Thesis, fully reported in detail in seven attached Manuscripts, are: I) Increased frequency of structural CAs and/or disrupted telomere length in PBL may be considered as risk factors for the different types of solid cancer; II) Telomere shortening in PBL of healthy subjects increased the frequency of structural CAs; III) Binary interactions of gene variants in mitotic checkpoint and DNA repair pathways may modulate the frequency of structural..