DNA damage and its association with the plasma Malondialdehyde levels among patients with Cervical Cancer-A case control study.

Abstract Background/Objective:The purpose of the present study was to estimate the DNA damage using comet assay in patients with cervical cancer and to find out its correlation with the oxidative stress marker (Plasma Malondialdehyde, MDA) and to compare the parameters in cases with the age-matched controls.Materials and Methods:This study included 49 cervical cancer cases and 49 age-matched controls to measure the DNA damage parameters such as Comet length, head diameter, percentage of DNA in the comet head, tail length, percentage of DNA in comet tail using comet assay technique and the oxidative stress marker (Plasma Malondialdehyde) using TBARS ELISA method.Results:The comet parameters such as Comet length, tail length, percentage of DNA in comet tail, representing the DNA damage were significantly high in the cervical cancer cases than in the age-matched controls. The comet parameters such as Head diameter, the percentage of DNA in the comet head, representing the undamaged/mild DNA damage were significantly high in age-matched controls than in cervical cancer cases. A positive correlation between the plasma MDA and the comet tail length was observed.Conclusion:The increased levels of Comet parameters and their positive association with plasma MDA indicate the high level of DNA damage in cervical cancer patients than the controls. Such a combination of comet assay and estimation of plasma MDA can be used as a predictive test along with the existing methods such as PAP smear, etc., for early detection and risk assessment of cervical cancer in individuals who belonged to the age group of 30-39 years, with parity of two to four and had a history of the early age at first pregnancy with a positive family history of cervical cancer.