METASTATIC PATTERN AND DNA PLOIDY IN STAGE-IV BREAST-CANCER AT INITIAL DIAGNOSIS - RELATION TO RESPONSE AND SURVIVAL

Sixty-nine patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) at initial dia gnosis were analyzed to verify if metastatic pattern and clinical outc ome are related to DNA ploidy determined by flow cytometry (FCM). Char acteristics of 55 fully evaluable patients were as follows: median age : 61 years; postmenopausal: 75%; bone-only metastases (BM): 60%; extra osseous-only metastases (EM): 40%. Overall response rates (CR + PR) ob tained with different chemotherapies and/or hormonal therapies were 58 % and 68% for patients with BM and EM, respectively. Sixty percent of specimens resulted aneuploid, and the mean coefficient of variation of the complete series was 5.1%. In the whole group of patients DNA ploi dy of primary tumor did not predict the metastatic pattern and had no influence upon response to treatment, duration of response, time to pr ogression, and overall survival. When analyses were carried out accord ing to metastatic pattern, those patients with BM showed similar resul ts. However, within the group with EM, those with diploid tumors prese nted a significantly better survival (median 18 vs 13 months, p = .04) . FCM-DNA analysis seems to identify a subgroup of patients with poor prognosis constituted by those who had aneuploid primary tumors and me tastases to extraosseous sites.