DNA-ploidy and survival in gastric carcinomas: a flow-cytometric study

In 125 gastric carcinomas the nuclear DNA content was determined by flow cytometry from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue of surgical specimens. The carcinomas were of intestinal or mixed type (85), and diffuse type (40). DNA-aneuploidy was found in 46% of the intestinal type and in 42% of the mixed type, but only in 15% of the diffuse-type carcinomas (P less than 0.01). The total rate of DNA-aneuploidy was 34%. Carcinomas localized in the cardia were more frequently DNA-aneuploid than tumours in other localizations (P less than 0.01). DNA-aneuploid carcinomas had metastasized more frequently to regional lymph nodes (P less than 0.05) whereas no correlations with tumour stage and cytological/histological grade were detected. In 94 patients follow-up data were available. DNA-aneuploidy was associated with a statistically significant poorer prognosis when compared to DNA-diploid tumours only in advanced gastric carcinomas with lymph node metastases (P = 0.0488) and in the subgroup of advanced intestinal and mixed-type tumours (P = 0.0289).