DNA aberrations in urinary bladder cancer detected by flow cytometry and FISH: prognostic implications

We evaluated the genetic changes in bladder cancer biopsy by fluorescence i n situ hybridization (FISH) and related them to stage and grade of the tumo r, ploidy (FCM) and clinical outcome, to determine a simple method to ident ify tumors with a poorer prognosis. Using FISH the numerical aberrations of chromosomes 1,7,9,17 in tumor's imprints of 70 patients with transitional cell cancer (TCC) were determined. First of all, the data demonstrated that the sensitivity of FISH in detecting quantitative DNA aberrations exceeds FCM's sensitivity. The frequency of chromosome 1 and 9 aberrations did not show significant differences in diploid and aneuploid tumors in different s tage and grade. On the contrary, the chromosome 7 and 17 aneusomy showed gr eater differences between pT1 and pT2-3 tumors (p<0.032 and p<0.0006, respe ctively) than between stage pTa and pT1. In our investigation, an increasin g number of aberrations was observed in all chromosomes examined in tumors of patients who afterwards underwent cystectomy and/or had recurrent tumors . These results suggest that chromosome 7 and 17 aneusomy could be predicti ve of adverse outcome in a subgroup of patients with superficial tumors at presentation.