A profound characteristic of field cancerization is alterations in
chromatin packing. This study aimed to quantify these alterations using electron microscopy image analysis of buccal mucosa cells of laryngeal, esophageal, and
lung cancer patients. Analysis was done on normal-appearing mucosa, believed to be within the cancerization field, and not
tumor itself. Large-scale electron microscopy (nanotomy) images were acquired of
cancer patients and controls. Within the nuclei, the
chromatin packing of
euchromatin and
heterochromatin was characterized. Furthermore, the
chromatin organization was quantified through
chromatin packing density scaling. A significant difference was found between the
cancer and control groups in the
chromatin packing density scaling parameter for length scales below the optical diffraction limit (200 nm) in both the
euchromatin (p = 0.002) and the
heterochromatin (p = 0.006). The
chromatin packing scaling analysis also indicated that the
chromatin organization of
cancer patients deviated significantly from the control group. They might allow for novel strategies for
cancer risk stratification and diagnosis with high sensitivity. This could aid clinicians in personalizing screening strategies for high-risk patients and follow-up strategies for treated
cancer patients.