Aneuploidy index in blood: A potential marker for early onset, androgen response, and metastasis in human prostate cancer

Objectives. To investigate whether the frequency of chromosome abnormalitie s in peripheral blood lymphocytes defined as the aneuploidy index in blood (AnIB) can be used as a clinical marker of early age onset, androgen respon se, and metastasis in human prostate cancer. Methods. Peripheral blood samples were collected from 80 patients with pros tate cancer, and chromosome preparations were made from 72-hour cultures af ter mitotic block. The AnIB of 59 informative cases was compared with sever al parameters, including age at disease onset, Gleason grade of tumor, clin ical stage of tumor, metastasis, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level. Results. Patients with AnIB levels greater than 3 had a significantly highe r incidence of metastasis (P = 0.022), androgen-independent disease (P = 0. 002), and early age at disease onset (age at diagnosis less than 65 years) (P = 0.002) compared with the patients with lower AnIB (less than 3) levels . In addition, patients with AnIB levels greater than 5 had higher PSA leve ls (greater than 20 ng/mL) (P = 0.029) than patients with AnIB levels less than 5. Conclusions. Chromosome abnormalities can be detected in the peripheral lym phocytes of patients with prostate cancer, and AnIB can be used as an early diagnostic and predictive marker for prostate cancer metastasis and androg en-independent disease. (C) 1999, Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved .