A SEARCH FOR PROGNOSTIC FACTORS IN CANCER OF THE PANCREATIC HEAD - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DNA-PLOIDY PATTERN

Using flow cytometry after the nuclear isolation and staining of tissu e specimens, the significance of the DNA ploidy pattern as a prognosti c factor in cancers of the head of the pancreas has been evaluated in 33 patients who underwent a pancreatic cancer resection. In addition t o the DNA ploidy pattern, the size of the tumour, regional lymph node involvement, the tumour's histopathological grade and the results of a curative resection were also evaluated as prognostic factors. The res ults of a univariate analysis revealed that the survival rate was sign ificantly higher for patients with a diploid tumour (n = 20) than for patients with an aneuploid tumour (n = 13) (P<0.001). Furthermore, sur vival rates were significantly better for patients with a T1 tumour th an with a T2 or T3 tumour (P<0.001), for patients without positive lym ph node involvement than for those with positive lymph nodes (P<0.001) , for patients with well-differentiated adenocarcinomas (G1) than for those with moderately differentiated (G2) or poorly differentiated (G3 ) adenocarcinomas, and for patients who underwent a curative resection than for those who underwent a noncurative resection (P<0.005). A mul tivariate analysis revealed significant prognostic differences in the DNA ploidy pattern (P<0.001), the frequency of a curative resection (P <0.001), regional lymph node involvement (P<0.05), and in the tumour's histopathological grading (P<0.05) but not its size. This study has f ound the DNA ploidy pattern to be the most significant prognostic fact or (chi(2) value: 38.1).