[Prognostic value of cell heterogeneity in cervical cancer determined by digital image analyzer of DNA content]

Frequency and prognostic value of cell heterogeneity in FIGO 1a-2a cervical cancer was examined, in 66 of patients underwent Wertheim type hysterectomy between 1989 and 1995 in National Institute of Cancer, Budapest, Hungary. A newly developed DNA image analyses (DNACE) was used in paraffin embedded tissues after enzymatic hydrolyses for evaluation of the DNA content in cervical cancer. In 30.3% of examined tissues (20/66) two subgroups was found. There was significant differences in the DNA indexes (DI) between the subgroups (p = 0.0001). In the remaining 69.7% of the cases only one subgroup was present. The frequency of two subgroups was higher between aneuploid (78.4%), or hyperploid (81.5%) type cervical cancer, however there was no significant difference between the two groups. On the other hand there was significant difference in the presence of two subgroups between the well and less differentiated cervical cancer. The frequency was higher between the less differentiated groups (p = 0.02). Looking at the prognostic value of subgroups, there was no significant correlation between the heterogeneity of cervical cancer and FIGO stage, or lymph node metastasis (p = 0.6855), or vascular/lymphatic space infiltration (p = 0.2558), or invasiveness of cancer (0.0823). There was neither significant value found between the outcome of disease and the number of subgroups present (p = 0.8738). It is though that the present of cellular heterogeneity in cervical cancer is connected with the differentiation of the cancer cells, and can be a good prognostic value in the anticipation of the aggressiveness of cervical cancer. Looking at the present result, there was no significant connection between the heterogeneity of cervical cancer and the outcome of the disease, so further examination should be done.