[DNA ploidy pattern in resected human hepatocellular carcinomas from the view point of biological malignant...

Nuclear DNA ploidy analysis was studied in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who underwent hepatic resections. These patients were classified three groups according to the following prescriptions. Group A (n = 100) was a group of patients of which excluded ones treated by absolute non-curative resection, Group B (n = 43) was patients who underwent absolute curative resection or relative curative resection, and Group C (n = 81) was patients whose tumor sizes were more than 2 cm in Group A. Aneuploid pattern was found in 59 cases (59.0%) in Group A, 22 cases (51.2%) in Group B and 54 cases (66.7%) in Group C. The rate of aneuploid pattern was significantly higher in patients with carcinomas more than 2 cm in diameter, fc-inf positive growth, Stage III + IV and PCNA LI > or = 40% in Group A, those with carcinomas more than 2 cm in diameter, fc-inf positive growth, im-positive and Stage III + IV in Group B, and those with PCNA LI > or = 40% in Group C. The postoperative prognoses of patients with aneuploid pattern in Group A and Group C were significantly poorer than those of the diploid one in cumulative survival rates and survival rates after recurrence. Patients with aneuploid pattern in Group B had a poorer prognosis than those with diploid one in cumulative survival rates and disease-free survival rates. These results suggest that nuclear DNA ploidy analysis was a useful marker of biological malignant potential in resected human HCCs.