Monitoring tobacco smoke-induced DNA damage by 32P-postlabelling.

Adduct levels in smokers are substantial, i.e. about 1 adduct in 10(7) nucleotides in lung DNA of lung cancer patients. Tobacco smoke-associated (TSA) DNA adducts, formed in a dose- and exposure time-dependent manner in smokers' lung, persist for considerable periods of time, consistent with epidemiological evidence showing quantitative associations of smoking with lung cancer risk and mortality. These results support a causal relationship between such adducts and tobacco smoking-induced cancer. TSA adducts were also present in various other target organs for tobacco-smoke carcinogenesis, including kidney, bladder, oesophagus and pancreas.