[Application and evaluation of flow cytometry to chemotherapy of malignant peritonitis]

The purpose of our study is to evaluate the application of flow-cytometry for the follow-up of the effect of the chemotherapy in malignant tumors in gynecology. Our investigation was made using a Impulse Cytophotometer Type-II with computer analyser. Light source of this type is a mercury vapor lamp. Spectro band from 350 to 800 nm, counting ability 100 thousand cells per minute. We took samples of exfoliated cells from the ascites of a few cases of the peritonitis carcinomatosa. We tried to evaluate the prognosis after chemotherapy. The cases were two ovarian cancers and one fallopian tubal cancer. We found a common pattern on the histogram of these cases. In the method, we compared the histogram of pretreatments with the histogram of post-treatment by chemotherapy. In this experiment, the patient who displayed polyploidy on therapy. However, the patient with diploidy or tetra-ploidy pattern on the histogram before treatment did not show a significant response to chemotherapy. We expect the same phenomenon in a response to radiation therapy. We are aware of the existence of diploid cell in malignancy, but it is not known what percentage the total malignant cells are diploid. It was found that the peak on the histogram of the cultured cells of YS-272 rat, moved to the right and returned to near death. This is a very interesting phenomenon. The rats all died in about 7 days after implantation of cultured YS-272 cells. The shifting of the peak to the right with the prognosis of the malignancy, followed by a return to diploidy is yet to be demonstrated in humans.