A flow cytometric analysis of the nuclear DNA content between primary and recurrent colorectal cancers

We compared the DNA content in both the primary and recurrent lesions of 12 cases with colorectal cancer. The DNA ploidy agreed in 10 cases (83.3%) between the primary and recurrent lesions. The mean DNA index was similar between both lesions. The DNA content seems to remain stable during recurrence in many cases of colorectal cancer. However, the existence of variations in the content also suggests that the specimens should be investigated for both primary and recurrent lesions in order to obtain more information on the biological or clinical behavior of the tumor.