Many cancer-prone diseases have been shown to be radiosensitive. The radiosensitivity has been attributed to pitfalls in the mechanisms of repair of induced DNA lesions or to an impaired cell cycle checkpoint response. Although discrepancies exist in the results obtained by various authors on the radiosensitivity of individuals affected by the same disease, these can be attributed to the large variability observed already in the response to radiation of normal individuals. To date three test are commonly used to assess radiosensitivity in human cells: survival, micronucleous and G2 chromosomal assay. The three tests may be performed using either fibroblasts or peripheral blood lymphocytes and all the three tests share large interindividual variability. In this regard a new approach to the G2 chromosomal assay which takes into account the eventual differences in cell cycle progression among individuals has been developed. This new approach is based on the analysis of G2 homogeneous cell populations. Cells irradiated are immediately challenged with medium containing bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd). Then cells are sampled at different post-irradiation times and BrdUrd incorporation detected on metaphases spread and the scoring is done only at time points showing similar incidence of labelled cells among the different donors. Using this approach it has been possible to reduce the interindividual variability of the G2 chromosomal assay.
