It has been suggested that radiation sensitivity may be increased in certain patients with cancer. Using a high‐efficiency limiting dilution cloning technique, the sensitivity to x‐ and ultraviolet (UV)‐radiation of lymphocytes from untreated patients with cancer to that of age‐matched controls was compared. Sensitivity to x‐radiation in 19 patients with carcinoma and 10 with lymphoma, and sensitivity to UV‐radiation in 8 patients with carcinoma and 4 with lymphoma were studied. The proportion of unirradiated lymphocytes forming clones was significantly lower in patients with cancer, particularly lymphoma, but there was no suggestion of increased sensitivity to either x‐ or UV‐radiation in any of the patients studied.
|Number of pages||4|
|Publication status||Published - 15 Dec 1984|