[A study of proliferative activity of soft tissue sarcomas]

Proliferative activity of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) in 31 cases was examined by histologic grading, mitotic count, DNA analysis by flow cytometry, and immunohistochemical procedures with monoclonal antibody Ki-67. Aneuploid was found in 12 of 16 cases (75.0%) with Grade 3, and in 4 of 15 cases (26.7%) with Grade 1,2 (P = 0.0121). Tumors with more than 100 Ki-67 positive cells per 10 high power fields (HPF) had a higher rate of aneuploid (81.3%) than those with less than 100 Ki-67 per 10 HPF (26.7%) (P = 0.0038). There was significant correlation between Grade and DNA index (DI) (r = 0.4901, P = 0.0051), Grade and Ki-67 (r = 0.4636, P = 0.0086), Ki-67 and DI (r = 0.6368, P = 0.0001). The results indicate that DI and reactivity of tumor cells to Ki-67 may reflect proliferative activity and be helpful for clinicians to judge the biological behaviour of tumors more accurately and objectively. Hence, supplementary to the grading of STS, DI and Ki-67 score could be useful as prognostic parameters for clinical invetigation of multimodality therapy for individual patients.