Figure 3

Effects of selected etiological factors on the cellular level of ADP-ribose polymer adducts in cancer patients. (a - c) The graphs show the effect of three main cancer related etiological factors on the total ADP-ribose polymer of PBL proteins in cancer patients following Spearman rank correlation test and Mann-Whitney rank sum test. The value for each patient is shown as a dot. Cancer patients exposed to alcohol recorded a statistically highly significant (P < 0.0001) reduction in the mean value of ADP-ribose polymer of PBL proteins as compared to patients not exposed to alcohol (a). Similarly, patients exposed to tobacco also recorded significantly (P = 0.0033) lower mean ADP-ribose polymer value than those not exposed to tobacco (b). In contrast, the wet variety of betel nut chewing habit of cancer patient did not seem to significantly (P = 0.0935) lower the level of ADP-ribose polymer when compared to the non-chewers (c). The values of total ADP-ribose polymer of PBL proteins for the age- and gender-matched (male - d; female - e) controls and cancer patients were also plotted. As is evident, the reductions in the level of ADP-ribose polymer of PBL proteins is highly significant (inset Table) suggesting that measure of ADP-ribose polymer of PBL protein is a general biomarker of cancer in humans.