DNA flow cytometry of thymomas

Forty-seven thymomas have been examined by DNA flow cytometry and results correlated with histology, stage, associated clinical features and survival. Twenty-five cases were DNA diploid, 14 were aneuploid and no results could be obtained for eight cases. The presence of aneuploidy correlated with more advanced (stage II and III) disease and the presence of myasthenia gravis and was more frequent in epithelial predominant thymomas. Tumour recurrence was more frequent in DNA aneuploid tumours, stage II/III disease and epithelial predominant neoplasms. Multifactorial analysis showed that DNA aneuploidy was predictive of tumour recurrence independent of the effects of stage and histology.