In vitro radiosensitivity of fibroblasts derived from patients with retinoblastoma and abnormalities of chromosome 13.

In vitro x-ray survival experiments were performed on fibroblast strains derived from nine patients with sporatic unilateral retinoblastoma and 26 patients with hereditary retinoblastoma. Fibroblasts derived from patients with hereditary retinoblastoma were significantly more radiosensitive than those derived from patients with sporatic retinoblastoma. The authors hypothesize that the increased in vitro radiosensitivity observed in some hereditary retinoblastoma cell strains is a reflection of an, as yet, uncharacterized defect in DNA repair or post-irradiation DNA replication. X-ray sensitivity was also measured in 19 fibroblast strains derived from patients bearing deletions, trisomies, inversions, or translocations of all or part of chromosome 13. These results are compared with data from individuals trisomic for three other autosomes. The results suggest an association between abnormalities of chromosome 13 and the cytotoxic effects of x-irradiation.