Flow cytometric DNA analysis of advanced prostatic adenocarcinoma

Thirty-two patients with extracapsular invasive prostatic adenocarcinoma were analysed to investigate the prognostic significance of DNA flow cytometry by using the nuclear material extracted from paraffin embedded prostatectomy specimens. The DNA ploid pattern was diploid in 61% of the tumors and aneuploid in 39%. A significant correlation between the DNA diploid pattern with pathologic low grade tumors and the DNA aneuploid pattern with high stage tumors was not proved. The clinical stage correlated well with patients survival but only DNA ploidy pattern and pathologic grade had trends of correlation. However, if only the stage D tumors were analysed, a significant prognostic predictive value of DNA flow cytometry was identified. Although the results maybe regarded as preliminary, (in view of the small number of patients), these suggest that DNA content from the initial surgical samples provide only a synergistic effect to the clinical stage and pathologic grade in the prognostic evaluation of the advanced prostate cancers especially for those who underwent hormonal therapy postoperatively.