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Measurement of chemopreventive efficacy in skin biopsies
P Bozzo1, D S Alberts, L Vaught
1Department of Surgery, Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Tucson 85724-05024, USA.
Objective:
To explore methods suitable for quantitative assessment of the efficacy of chemopreventive intervention.
Study Design:
High-resolution imagery of nuclei from the suprabasal and basal cell layers of sun-damaged skin were recorded. There were 10 cases. A shave biopsy was taken from an area of clearly evident solar keratosis before and after treatment with 2-difluoromethyl-dlornithine (DFMO) and from the colateral forearm, treated with a placebo. A number of karyometric variables were computed and combined to derive marker features that provided a numeric measure of the degree of nuclear deviation from normal.
Results:
DFMO treatment was effective overall in reducing the degree of nuclear abnormality seen in the biopsies; in 8 of the 10 cases there was a significant improvement. The placebo-treated arm did not show a statistically different abnormality from the untreated arm.
Conclusion:
Karyometric analysis can provide numeric measures that allow documentation of statistically significant regression of actinic keratotic lesions following treatment with DFMO.