Persistent Increased Frequency of Genomic Instability in Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer: Before, during, and after Treatments

Table 2

DNA damage (mean ± SD) evaluation in peripheral blood of patients with breast cancer before, during, and after treatment and nonexposed control using comet assay.

Groups	Comet assay (100 cells/individual)
	Damage index (0–400)	Damage frequency (%)
Control	22.90 ± 19.31	14.53 ± 8.24
Patients
Before treatment^a	180.90 ± 53.67	91.57 ± 13.94
Chemotherapy^b	187.2 ± 56.61	94.83 ± 6.80
Before radiotherapy^c	156.70 ± 69.68	73.10 ± 21.54
Radiotherapy^d	189.60 ± 66.61	86.07 ± 12.34
After radiotherapy^e	229.10 ± 47.93	90.20 ± 12.23

^aPatient at the time of diagnosis; ^b3 weeks after beginning chemotherapy; ^cBefore radiotherapy and after chemotherapy; ^d3 weeks after beginning radiotherapy; ^e21 days after the end of radiotherapy; Significant at in relation to control group (ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis).