[Prognostic significance of nuclear DNA content of colonic carcinoma]

In this study nuclear DNA content of the cancer tissue was analysed retrospectively by microspectrophotometry in two groups of colonic cancer patients: Group I, 19 cases who died within two years after radical surgery and Group II, 24 cases with a survival of more than 5 years. The other clinicopathological findings including location of tumor, grade of histological differentiation, depth of invasion, lymph vessel and venous invasion, lymph node metastasis, histological stage, and preoperative CEA level were similar between the groups. The DNA histograms were classified into two types as following: Type I: in which the ratio of over 3C cells was less than 15% type II: in which the ratio of over 3C cells was 15% or more. It was found that the percentage of type I DNA histogram was significantly higher in the long-term-survivors, while type II histogram was predominant in the short-term-survivors (P < 0.05). These results suggest that the nuclear DNA content of the cancer cells may bone of prognostic value in colonic carcinoma.