Acetylation phenotypes and bladder cancer.

The human population consists of slow and fast acetylators. To test the hypothesis that slow acetylators are predisposed to bladder cancer caused by exposure to aromatic amines, we performed a retrospective study, phenotyping cancer patients. Bladder cancer patients were divided, based on interview data, into two groups: those with and without occupational exposure to aromatic amines. The nonexposed group had a distribution of slow acetylators (60.5%) similar to that in the general Polish population. (A group of controls was 45.4% slow acetylators.) The exposed group was predominantly slow acetylators (87.6%). A prospective study in a currently healthy occupationally exposed cohort has been initiated to investigate possible change in acetylator phenotype with disease or therapy onset. Cohort members have been typed for acetylator status; a tumor marker (to identify bladder cancer at a preclinical stage) and acetylator status will be measured periodically.