LONG-TERM SURVIVAL AND DNA-PLOIDY IN ADVANCED EPITHELIAL OVARIAN-CANCER

Background and Objectives: The relationship(1) of the tumor DNA conten t to survival of patients with advanced epithelial cancer has not yet been clarified. A large amount of contradictory data exists in the lit erature. This study analyzes the putative relationship between ploidy and advanced ovarian carcinoma. Methods: A retrospective analysis of t umor ploidy, DNA index, and the S-phase fraction from 35 patients with nonborderline epithelial ovarian carcinomas was determined by flow cy tometry of paraffin-embedded tissue. All patients had FIGO stage III o r IV disease. Those patients who survived >5 years were assigned to Gr oup A (10 patients). Group B consisted of 25 age-matched subjects who succumbed to their disease within 5 years of diagnosis. Results: Group A had not reached a median overall survival with a median follow-up o f 114 months (range 67-226), whereas Group B had a median overall surv ival of 17 months (range 1-48). Two of the patients in Group A and all of the patients in group B had died of the disease. The two groups we re similar in age, histologic type, and treatment. In Group A, three p atients had grade 1 tumors, in contrast to group B where all the patie nts had either grade 2 or 3 disease (P = 0.018). However, the distribu tion of aneuploidy was similar in both groups. Also, the DNA indices w ere similar: 1.40 +/- 0.42 in Group A, and 1.36 +/- 0.44 in Group B. T he median S-phase fraction was 14% (range 3-23%) in Group A, and 15% ( range 2-23 %) in Group B. The grade and type of tumor were not related to the ploidy or the DNA index. There was no significant correlation between ploidy or the DNA index and survival. Conclusion: This study s uggests that the DNA content of tumor as measured by flow cytometry is not a predictor of long-term survival in ovarian cancer patients with advanced disease. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.