[The nuclear morphometric analysis and its clinical value in esophageal cancer]

The technique of computer-assisted morphometric analysis had been utilized to assess the prognosis for many cancers. However, there has not been the report about application of this method in esophageal cancer. The nuclear area (A) and nuclear roundness factor (NRF) of epithelial cells of 42 esophageal cancers and ten normal esophagus were measured by morphometry and the results were compared with the extent of the tumor (length, depth and lymph node metastasis), pathologic grades of the cancer, survival time of the patients, and so on. A and NRF of epithelial cells of esophageal cancer were significantly larger than those of normal esophagus (P < 0.001 and P < 0.05 respectively). In the esophageal cancer group, NRF of epithelial cells of patients with short survival time were significantly larger than those of long survival time (P < 0.05). NRF of epithelial cells of patients with lymphatic node metastasis were significantly larger than those of non-metastasis (P < 0.05). A and NRF of epithelial cells were not related with tumor length, invasive depth, and position, also not related with patient sex and age. The results confirmed that nuclear morphometry can play an important role in the diagnosis, differential diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal cancer.