CLINICAL-STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CYTOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR AND POSTOPERATIVE PROGNOSIS IN COLORECTAL-CANCER CASES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NUCLEAR-DNA CONTENT AND NUCLEOLAR ORGANIZER REGIONS

Background: We studied the usefulness of nuclear DNA patterns and argy rophylic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) for evaluating the malig nant potential of colorectal cancers, which is increasingly being rega rded as important in predicting patients' prognosis and for their appr opriate postoperative management. Methods: We measured these two facto rs in curatively resected specimens of 91 colorectal cancer cases, whi ch were followed up far 1,549 +/- 788 days postoperatively. Ploidy pat tern was either diploid or aneuploid, and AgNORs score was either low (LS) or high (HS). Thus, we classified our cases into Group I (diploid , LS), Group II (aneuploid, LS), Group lII (diploid, HS), and Group IV (aneuploid, KS). Postoperative survival curves in the cases belonging to these groups were analyzed. Results: Survival rates in Groups I an d II were significantly higher than those in Group IV. Correlation bet ween subgroups and clinicopathological factors such as average age, hi stologic type, depth of invasion, and histologic stage were observed. Incidence of lymph node metastasis at the time of operation and that o f postoperative recurrence were higher in group IV than that in groups I and II. Conclusions: Measurement of DNA ploidy patterns and AgNORs score were found to be useful in evaluating malignant potential of col orectal cancers. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.