THYMIDINE UPTAKE IN-VITRO AS A PROGNOSTIC INDICATOR FOR PRIMARY GASTRIC-CANCER

Background. Prognostic significance of in vitro thymidine uptake by ca ncer cells remains unclear in patients with gastric cancer. Methods. I n 173 patients with operable gastric cancer, the relations between thy midine uptake by gastric cancer cells in semi-solid media and their cl inicopathologic features as well as their survival lengths were studie d. Results. There were significant correlations between in vitro thymi dine uptake and such clinicopathologic features as lymph node metastas is (P = 0.00002), lymphatic invasion (P = 0.003), vessel invasion (P = 0.006), peritoneal metastasis (P = 0.010), depth of invasion (P = 0.0 11), and hepatic metastasis (P = 0.032). Ninety-five of 173 cancers (5 4.9%) that incorporated 1000 or more cpm in a single well were designa ted as being a high uptake group. Other gastric cancers (78 of 173; 45 .1%) were designated as being a low uptake group. The overall survival rate of the patients was demonstrated to be significantly longer in t he group with a low thymidine uptake than with a high uptake (P < 0.00 001). The multivariate analysis showed that thymidine is one of the tw o variables that are the most highly correlated with the probability o f patient death (P = 0.00044). Conclusions. These results indicated th at in vitro thymidine uptake is an independent prognostic parameter fo r gastric cancer and may be useful for selecting patients who would be nefit from more intensive therapy.