NUCLEAR-DNA CONTENT OF FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATES OF INVASIVE DUCTAL CARCINOMAS OF THE BREAST

Patients with aggressive breast cancers benefit from chemotherapy prio r to surgery. If the biology of the breast cancers were better charact erised pre-operatively, more patients at risk could be offered chemoth erapy. We have assessed nuclear DNA content of fine needle aspirates ( FNA) of 103 invasive ductal breast cancers and compared this to tumour size, node status and histological grade. Median follow-up was 18 mon ths so no prognostic studies were made. Diploid and non-diploid tumour s were distributed equally in node negative and positive patients. How ever non-diploidy status increased in line with known prognostic marke rs of tumour size and histological grade. This suggests that ploidy mi ght contribute to the pre-operative assessment of prognosis. We conclu de that nuclear DNA of breast cancer FNAs may be of value in the pre-o perative biological assessment of breast cancer patients.