Vol. 9, No 1, 2002 pp. 119 - 122
UC 616.62-006
REVIEW OF THE COOPERATIVE STUDIES
OF THE NATIONAL ONCOLOGICAL CENTRE IN BULGARIA ON BALKAN ENDEMIC NEPHROPATHY
AND ASSOCIATED URINARY TRACT TUMOURS
(1991 – 2001)
I.G. Nikolov1, I.N. Chernozemsky1,
T. Petkova-Bocharova1, T. Vrabcheva2,
I. Stojchev1, B. Bankov3,
M. Castegnaro4, A. Pfohl-Leszkowicz5,
S. Dragacci6, N. Day7,
C. Gill7, E. Useleber8,
R. Dietrich8, E. Martlbauer8
1Laboratory of Population Oncogenesis,
National Oncological Centre, Sofia, Bulgaria,
2Laboratory of Mycotoxicology, National
Centre of Hygiene, Sofia, Bulgaria,
3Clinic of Uurology, Vratza District
Hospital, Vratza, Bulgaria,
4Unit of Gene-Environment Interactions,
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France,
5Laboratoire de Toxicologie et Securite
Alimentaire, Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique de Toulouse,
Toulouse, France,
6Unite de Toxines Microbiennes, Agence
Francaise de Securite Sanitaire et Aliments, Paris, France,
7Institute of Public Health, University
of Cambridge, Cambridge, England,
8Institute for Hygiene and Technology
of Food of Animal Origin, Munich, Germany
Very few cases of two closely connected diseases in humans have been reported
in medical literature so far. One of the most striking examples for such
relationship at both population and personal level are the Balkan endemic
nephropathy and urinary tract tumours in the endemic regions of former
Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. This strange constellation of impaired
health has been studied for over half a century but still its etiology
remains obscure despite very hard work done by national and international
groups and programs.
In our short review we report the major findings obtained for a period
of about 30 years by the collaborative efforts of the authors and their
groups in Bulgaria, France, UK and Germany.
The Future
Epidemiology
The war in former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia) is a giant health and
social experiment on BEN and UTT. A population based epidemiological study
will possibly give better understanding of the role of the environmental
factors and of the genetic predisposition because of the movement and mixing
of big population groups in and out of BEN areas and especially if application
of new molecular epidemiological methods will be used.
Mechanisms
Further studies on DNA adduct formation with different xenobiotics.
Application of DNA chip technology.
Application of new markers for individual susceptibility to xenobiotics.
Healthcare
UTT screening in BEN areas with new tumour markers.
