Hepatic acetylator phenotype in bladder cancer patients.

We determined the hepatic acetylator phenotype in 130 patients with transitional-cell carcinoma (urothelioma) of the bladder and, previously in 157 normal control subjects. Eighty-three patients (63.8%) and 90 control subjects (57.4%) were slow acetylators (p greater than 0.05). Patients of both phenotypes did not differ in the consumption of tobacco and coffee. Seventy-five patients were not exposed to occupational risk for bladder cancer and the distribution of acetylator phenotype in them was similar to that of the control group. The other 55 patients had been employed in jobs with an elevated risk for urotheliomas; 41 (74.5%) were slow acetylators, which represented a significant excess over the incidence of slow acetylators in the control group (57.4%) (p less than 0.05); 15 of these patients had worked in jobs with carcinogenic arylamines proven in the workplace environment (11 were slow acetylators). Our results suggest that the slow acetylator phenotype can facilitate the development of urothelioma in individuals with occupational risk.