Correlation between nuclear DNA content and steroid receptor status in ovarian cancer

The nuclear DNA content of 47 malignant epithelial ovarian tumours and five ovarian tumours of borderline malignancy was correlated with estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) and androgen receptor (AR) status. Aneuploidy was observed in 60% of the malignant tumours. The DNA index of poorly differentiated tumours was higher than that of well differentiated tumours (P less than 0.05). Ploidy did not correlate with histological type, stage of disease and ER content. Of the diploid tumours, 74% was PR-positive, in contrast to 36% of the aneuploid tumours (P less than 0.05). In addition, 89% of the diploid tumours had high AR levels (greater than or equal to 30 fmol/mg cytosol protein), in contrast to only 54% of the aneuploid tumours (P less than 0.05). These observations strengthen our previous findings on the prognostic importance of PR and also suggest that androgens may have a role in ovarian cancer.