The Significance of DNA Flow-cytometry in Breast Cancer.
- Author:
Ja Yun KOO
1
;
Hy De LEE
;
Woo Hee JUNG
Author Information
1. Department of Surgery, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
DNA flow-cytometry;
S-phase fraction;
DNA index;
Breast cancer
- MeSH:
Aneuploidy;
Breast Neoplasms*;
Breast*;
Clone Cells;
Diploidy;
Disease-Free Survival;
DNA*;
Follow-Up Studies;
Humans;
Lymph Nodes;
Neoplasm Metastasis;
Ploidies;
Prognosis;
Survival Rate
- From:Journal of the Korean Cancer Association
1997;29(5):738-747
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: To evaluate the relationship between nuclear DNA contents and prognostic factors and survival in breast cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We determined nuclear DNA content from 91 paraffin-embedded malignant breast tumors and evaluated relationship between DNA nuclear content and well-known prognostic indicators of breast cancer and the survival of the patients by statistical analyses. RESULTS: Twenty nine (34.5%) of the 91 tumors examined were diploid, and the remainder (65.5%) contained one or more aneuploid clones. S-phase fraction (SPF) ranged from 1.4 to 68.3% (median 11.2%) and it was higher in aneuploidy tumors than in diploid tumors (p<0.05). Positive axillary lymph nodes were found in 72.7% of the patients who had a tumor with a high SPF (above the median 11.2%) and in 27.3% of those with tumor with low SPF (below median) (p<0.05). The overall survival rate was 96.1% in DNA diploid and 87.6% in DNA aneuploid tumors, showing that DNA ploidy had no prognostic significance in breast cancers. The actuarial survival rates were 96.4% and 86.3% for low and high SPF, respectively (p=0.28). The patients with high SPF showed high disease free survival rate compared to the patients with low SPF but the difference had no statistical significance. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate DNA aneuploid tumors were more prevalent in breast cancer patients with high SPF or lymph node metastasis and larger patient accumulation with longer follow-up period will be helpful to identifiy the relationship between flow- cytometrical analysis and prognosis.
