CYTOB-83B3-highlights

Abstract

The review article by Mauland et al provided evidence that the DNA content assessment zmay be of clinical value in endometrial cancer (EC) (1). As many of us may recall, DNA ploidy in EC was introduced as a prognostic marker 30 years ago (2). Despite the accumulating evidence that tumor aneuploidy is associated with poorer clinical outcome, this parameter was not incorporated into daily clinical practice for a number of reasons, mainly due to the lack of a routine diagnostic test validating its clinical applicability in EC. Looking at literature data in this field, the majority of the studies demonstrated highly significant correlation between DNA aneuploidy and survival in both univariate and multivariate analysis. Unfortunately, few studies have focused on DNA ploidy as a prognostic marker in a prospective setting. In conclusion, based on the reviewed literature, authors concluded that DNA ploidy analysis in hysterectomy specimen is superior to analysis in curettage material and may predict lymph node metastasis. However, the clinical significance of tumor aneuploidy in this setting may be hampered by the methodology used (flow cytometry, image cytometry and laser scanning cytometry), thus limiting the clinical applicability of this analysis.