[Doxorubicin and cisplatin genotoxicity: search for a real indication using the micronucleus test].

Doxorubicin and cisplatin are two major anticancer drugs, and are also known to be mutagen. Using short term mutagenesis tests, the cytokinesis-block micronucleus test and chromosome aberrations test, a study of the cytotoxicity and the mutagenicity of these two drugs has been aimed to determine a genotoxic of reference for these tests. Cisplatin and doxorubicin were genotoxic and gave positive results with the two tests. Since cisplatin was more cytotoxic than doxorubicin for a same genotoxicity, doxorubicin has been selected as a positive control for these two short-term mutagenesis tests. A study of the individual variability in the response to in vitro doxorubicin exposure was made using the cytokinesis-block micronucleus test, applied to cultured T lymphocytes form healthy subjects and cancer patients. Micronucleated cell rate before (T0) and after in vitro exposure to doxorubicin (T1) were determined in the two groups of subjects. Micronucleated cell rates T1 were significantly higher than T0 for healthy subjects and cancer patients. A calculated sensitivity index [(T1)-(T0)] is proposed to evaluate the individual sensitivity to the positive control doxorubicin.