DNA content as a predictor of clinical outcome in soft tissue sarcoma patients

The prognostic relevance of cellular DNA content has been shown for a variety of human malignancies. However, only a few studies concerning soft tissue sarcomas have been published. Biopsies of 81 patients with soft tissue sarcomas, referred for primary or secondary surgery, were analysed by flow cytometry to determine cellular DNA content of tumours. Most patients (60/81) already had one or more local recurrences at the time of first presentation at Essen University. The median age of the patients was 45 years (range 14-79). 44 (54%) patients had euploid and 37 (46%) had aneuploid tumours. Age, sex, and tumour localisation (trunk versus extremity) were equally distributed between euploid and aneuploid sarcoma patients. The median follow-up was 69 months (range 9-312). The median survival time for euploid and aneuploid tumours was 84 and 30 months, respectively (P < 0.0005). In the univariate analysis, ploidy, S-phase percentage, localisation and tumour grading were significant predictors of survival, whereas in the multivariate analysis, only DNA content and tumour localisation were independent prognostic variables for survival.