Dermatoglyphic analysis of different types of bronchopulmonary carcinoma

This research was supported by the Ministry for Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia, under the title “Anthropological investigations of the Population Structure of Croatia” (Project: 01960101). In this investigation of etiology of carcinoma the discriminant analysis and Mahalonobis D² biological distance was carried out on the sample of a group of 301 patients with four different histological types of bronchopulmonary carcinoma and compared with 400 phenotypically healthy persons. Prints of dermatoglyphs were taken for 18 quantitative dermatoglyphic traits on fingers and palms. Discriminant analysis has shown palmar variables as primary discriminating variables between the patients suffering from different types of carcinoma and phenotypically healthy controls, and between the group of patients suffering from carcinoma. Discriminant classification is very high between patients suffering from carcinoma and phenotypically healthy controls in males and in females. Mahalanobis D² biological distances show differences between the group of cancers and phenotypically healthy controls. This findings clearly show the genetical predisposition for the disease, but genetic interpretations do not exclude environmental influences during the period of early intrauterine life in patients suffering from carcinoma.