Nuclear DNA Analysis: The Relevance of Ploidy, DNA Heterogeneity and Phases of the Cell Cycle in 329 Patients with Prostatic Carcinoma

Abstract

The ploidy, DNA heterogeneity and the phases of the cell cycle of the tumor were analyzed, by means of single-cell DNA cytophotometry, in 329 patients with locally advanced prostatic carcinoma to find out and establish prognostic factors apart from those already known (stage, grade). Follow-up periods ranged from 1 to 9 years. 253 (76.8%) of the 329 patients had carcinoma stage T₃ N_x M₀, and 76 of them (23.1 %) had carcinoma stage T₃/T₄ N₂_––4 M₁. 11.8% of the patients showed a cytological grade of malignancy I, while 64.3% had grade II carcinoma and 23.8% had grade III carcinoma. Single-cell DNA cytophotometry demonstrated aneuploidy rates of up to 71 % and diploidy rates of up to 23.8% for the higher grades of malignancy, i.e. grades II and III, whereas the diploidy rate established for grade I was 68% and the respective aneuploidy rate was 21%. These differences are significant (p < 0.001). There was a significant correlation between the results of DNA cytophotometry and the clinical course of the disease. Only 3 (3.7%) of the patients with diploid tumor cell nuclei developed metastases and local tumor progression within 8 years, whereas patients with aneuploid tumor cell nuclei showed metastases and local tumor progression within 8–22 months. These patients died of carcinoma after an average 18 months following primary diagnosis.

DNA Ploidy, S Phase Fraction and G2 Fraction as Prognostic Determinants in Prostatic Adenocarcinoma

“…The majority of T4 as well as grade III tumours were aneuploid, in contrast to grade I tumours which were usually diploid. This is in full agree ment with the previous results [20], including the recent findings by Al-Abadi et al [28] who used single-cell cytophotometry in assessing the DNA content and cell phase of cancer cells. Distribution of DNA indexes was similar to that reported by Haugen et al [29] who also found a significant proportion of tumours to have a nearly tetraploid or tetraploid DNA index.…”

DNA ploidy measurements in prostate cancer: Differences between image analysis and flow cytometry and clinical implications

“…Most DNA ploidy studies in prostate carcinoma have been performed using flow cytometry [4,20,24-28, 30-32,391. Smaller numbers of researchers have employed image analysis [19,29,33,40,41], and limited numbers of studies have addressed the comparison and reliability of different techniques 142,431.…”

DNA-cytometric grading of prostate cancer Systematic review with descriptive data analysis

“…• 32 revealed an inadequate study design: 10 comprised < 50 patients [54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63], 6 had a mixture of different types of therapy [64][65][66][67][68][69], 5 missed sufficient therapeutic information [70][71][72][73][74], 3 missed sufficient follow-up information [75][76][77], 4 applied an inadequate gold standard (digital rectal examination, cancer volume) [78][79][80][81], 2 selected prognostically extreme groups of patients [82,83], 1 comprised mixed tumor-stages [84], 1 presented no details on recurrence [85].…”