[Prognostic evaluation of endometrial carcinoma by DNA content and histologic factors]

Paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 51 endometrial cancer patients were analyzed by DNA flow cytometry to investigate relationship between DNA content and histologic prognostic factors. Twenty of the tumors were DNA aneuploid. With regard to clinical stage, DNA aneuploid tumors were observed in 22.9% of stage I, 72.7% of stage II and 80.0% of stage III cases. Concerning the histologic type, DNA aneuploid tumors were seen in 31.4% of endometrial carcinomas, 28.6% of adenosquamous cell carcinomas and 87.5% of serous adenocarcinoma cases. As to the depth of invasion, in 16.0% of cases there was invasion within 1/3 myometrium, in 42.9% of cases the middle 2/3, and in 80.0% of cases there was invasion throughout 2/3, these all being aneuploid cases. The above findings suggest that DNA aneuploidy is associated with the clinical stage, myometrial invasion and especially the histologic type. Furthermore, lymph node metastasis was detected in 3.4 and 26.3% of DNA diploid and aneuploid groups, respectively, and the frequencies were significantly different. Moreover, the 5 year survival rate was significantly higher in the DNA diploid group (96.8%) than in the aneuploid group (62.7%) (p < 0.05). The results suggest that flow cytometric ploidy determination is useful in making the prognosis for patients with endometrial carcinoma.