| Abstract: | Studies on the pattern of proliferation of epithelial cells from the oesophagus of 33 individuals from Linxian, a high-risk area for oesophageal cancer in China, and of 22 subjects from Jiaoxian, a low-risk area for the same cancer in China, were performed using thymidine labelling. Oesophageal biopsies were obtained during endoscopic surveys carried out in these 2 populations. A clear difference was observed between the 2 groups; the high-risk group showed cell proliferation in the upper layers of the epithelium more often than the low-risk group. No difference was found in the cell proliferation patterns of subjects with oesophagitis and those without oesophagitis in the high-risk area. This finding could suggest that the tritiated thymidine assay may be a more sensitive method to characterize the precancerous lesions of the oesophagus in high- and low-risk populations than simple histological evaluation. |
