[Flow cytometry analysis of retinoblastoma and its clinical significance]

Flow cytometry (FCM) is a new technic that determines with precision the cellular DNA content and its distribution in various phases of the cell cycle. Using FCM, we analysed paraffin embedded tissue masses of retinoblastoma from 20 patients with the results that the rate of occurrence of DNA heteroploid was 35%; the occurrence rate of heteroploid in the glaucoma stage and the extraocular stage was higher than that in the intraocular stage (P less than 0.02); the postoperative survival rate of the diploid and near-diploid tumors was obviously higher than that of the heteroploid (P = 0.01); the cellular proportion in the G2M stage of the heteroploid and the index of cell proliferation was obviously higher than that of the diploid and near-diploid (P less than 0.05). This technique is of value in estimating the prognosis of retinoblastoma.