Flow cytometric analysis of prostatic carcinoma with and without bone marrow metastasis

We have analyzed 68 prostates obtained at autopsy, for DNA ploidy by means of flow cytometry from patients who had clinical prostatic carcinoma with (29 cases) and without (39 cases) bone marrow metastasis. Flow cytometric analysis revealed 42 diploid cases and 26 aneuploid cases in a total of 68 cases. Among the 26 cases of aneuploidy, 4 cases were tetraploid aneuploid and 22 cases were not tetraploid aneuploid. The highest incidence for the aneuploidy was found in stage D2 disease (19/29, 65.5%), while the highest incidence for diploid was seen in stage B disease (23/25, 92.0%). The correlation between ploidy and bone marrow metastasis was significant (P < 0.01). We thus reconfirm that flow cytometric analysis of paraffin embedded tissue is useful for prognostic evaluation of prostatic carcinoma.