PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF DNA-PLOIDY IN BREAST-CANCER STAGE I-II

The DNA content of paraffin-embedded tumor tissue has been measured by flow cytometry in 169 patients with operable breast cancer Stage I-II . The medium follow-up period was 123 months. Aneuploid primary tumors were found in 49% of patients. Tumor ploidy significantly correlated with histological type of tumor (p < 0.05), whereas no clear correlati on between DNA ploidy and tumor size, histological grade and lymph nod e involvement was found. After IO-year follow-up, recurrence-free surv ival (RFS) of patients with diploid tumors was slightly better than th e survival of those with aneuploid tumors, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.39). In a Cox multivariate analysis o nly the axillary lymph node involvement and tumor size proved to be in dependent prognostic factors for recurrence, whereas DNA ploidy lost i ts prognostic value already in the univariate analysis. Therefore, we can conclude that the information on DNA ploidy, obtained from archiva l material, does not contribute significantly to a better discriminati on between good-risk and poor-risk operable breast cancer patients.