Relationship between DNA flow cytometric data, nuclear morphometric variables and volume-corrected mitotic index in...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Pathology
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Transitional cell bladder tumors exhibit variable biological behavior.
• Accurate assessment of tumor cell proliferation and DNA content is crucial for prognosis.
• Morphometric analysis offers a potential method for evaluating these parameters.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between nuclear morphometric variables and flow cytometric parameters (DNA index and S-phase fraction) in transitional cell bladder tumors.
• To assess the feasibility of estimating DNA index (DI) and S-phase fraction (SPF) using routine histopathological sections.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 222 transitional cell bladder tumors.
• Assessment of morphometric variables: mean nuclear area, standard deviation of nuclear area, and mean area of the 10 largest nuclei (NA10).
• Evaluation of volume-corrected mitotic index (M/V index) and comparison with DNA index (DI) and S-phase fraction (SPF).

Main Results:

• Highly significant correlations were found between morphometric variables and both DI and SPF (p < 0.0001).
• Pearson's correlation coefficients showed significant associations: NA10 with DI (r = 0.413) and M/V index with SPF (r = 0.536).
• S-phase fraction (SPF) could be reliably estimated using morphometric methods, while DNA index (DI) estimation was less precise.

Conclusions:

• Morphometric analysis of routine histopathological sections can provide semiquantitative estimates of DI and SPF.
• Combining morphometric variables enhances the reliability of estimating flow cytometric parameters.
• Simple morphometric methods show promise for routine assessment of tumor cell proliferation and DNA content in bladder cancer.