[Flow cytometric DNA analysis of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid using paraffin-embedded specimens]

A flow cytometric DNA analysis of papillary thyroid carcinomas has been performed on paraffin-embedded specimens, in order to determine the clinical usefulness of this method by defining the degree of the biological malignancy. Fifty-eight patients with papillary carcinomas were followed from 2 to 8 years. They were classified according to their prognosis into three groups: non-recurrent (47 patients), recurrent (5 patients), and a deceased group (6 patients). Aneuploidy was found in 6 (10.3%) of the total 58 patients. It was more frequently detected in the recurrent (40%) and in the deceased (33.3%) groups than in the non-recurrent group (4.3%). Higher proliferating index values were observed in the deceased group than in the recurrent and non-recurrent groups. These results indicate that a DNA analysis, using routine paraffin-embedded materials, is a useful adjunct in the determination of the degree of the biological malignancy of a papillary carcinoma.