The nuclear DNA content has recently emerged as a new prognostic indicator in various cancers. Flow cytometry (FCM) has become a generally accepted analytical method, thousands of nuclei can be evaluated for their DNA content with a good
resolution.
Breast cancer in one of those malignant tumors which have been extensively investigated by flow cytometry. In recent, there has been reported that DNA ploidy is an important prognostic significance of breast cancer The nuclear DNA conternst of 32
female
breast cancers. Were determined by flow cytometric technique using paraffin-embedded tissue. All patients were followed-up for the period ranging from 3 months to 8 years and recurrence and survival period were identified
The mean Value of comfficient of variance in DNA histogram Was 6.8±1.0 (3.8-8.0). DNA diploid tumor was twenty cases (62.5%) and nondiploid was twelve cases (37.5%), In patients with diploid tumors, the mean S-phase fraction (SFP) was 17.3±7.9%
in the
bnondiploid tumors, the mean S-phase fraction (SPF) was 22.0±8.1%.
DNA ploidy data was correlate with various clincal and histopathologic factors : the significant correlation existed between the tumor size, clinical stage, axillary lymph node or distant metastasis and DNA ploidy status (P<0.05).
Based on these results, it is concluded that nuclear DNA ploidy status and SPF are an independent prognostic factor predicting for recurrence of the disease, and nondiploid breast cancer with high SPF needs more active postoperative adjuvant
treatment
because of its biologic aggressiveness. But additional longterm studies are necessary before tumor ploidy and SPF cna be used to select patient who should or shoud not receive systemic therapy.
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