Abstract:

Objective

To retrospectively analyze DNA contents in early b reast cancer with bad prognosis and advanced breast cancer with good prognosis using flow cytometry(FCM)and to assess the value of FCM for prognosis of breast cancers,in order to provide a method for clinic choice of appropriate treatment.

Methods

Patients for this study were randomly selected from those who underwent surgery and conventional treatment in Tianjin Cancer Hospital from January 1990 to December 1992,including 11 patients with clinical stageⅠbreast cancer who had recurrence,metastasis or even death in ten years after surgery and 16 patients with clinical stageⅢbreast cancer whose positive axillary lymph nodes were more than ten and with ten year disease-free survival after surgery;patients as controls were selected respectively in the same period,including 14 patients with clinical stageⅠbreast cancer and with disease-free survival and 14 patients of clinical stageⅢbreast cancer with positive axillary lymph nodes more than ten and with bad prognosis.Then the DNA contents of all samples were tested with FCM,including DNA index(DI),s-phase fraction(SPF)and DNA ploidy.The characteristics of the DNA contents in both groups of clinical stageⅠandⅢbreast cancers were analyzed.The levels of lymphatic and soft tissue metastasis of stageⅢbreast cancer patients in the subgroups were also analyzed.t test was used for the comparison of quantitation data,single element variance analysis was used for multiple group comparison,and Fisher precise probabilistic method was used for small sample comparison .

Results

⑴In the group of 11 clinical stageⅠbreast cancer patients with bad prognosis,the DNA ploidy was aneuploid in 6 cases(6/11),and diploid in 5(5/11);in the control group of 14 clinical stageⅠbreast cancer patients with ten year disease free survival,the DNA ploidy was aneuploid in zero (0/14)and diploid in all(14/14),there was statistically significant difference between the two groups(P=0.003).⑵There was no statistical difference in DI between the group of stageⅠbreast cancer with bad prognosis and the group of clinical stageⅠbreast cancer with ten year disease free survival,and between the group of stageⅢbreast cancers with good prognosis and the group of stageⅢbreast cancers with bad prognosis(P＞0.050).⑶There was no statistical difference in DNA ploidy between the group of stageⅢbreast cancers with bad prognosis and the group of stageⅢbreast cancers with good prognosis.⑷According to the analysis of different metastasis level of lymph nodes in all cases of stageⅢbreast cancers,the diploid was greater in the third level of lymph nodes than in the first and second levels of lymph nodes,while SPF was lower in first and second levels of lymph nodes than in the third level of lymph nodes.But there was no statistical difference between them(P＞0.050).⑸According to the analysis of different metastasis level of soft tissue outside lymph nodes in all cases of stageⅢbreast cancers,there was no statistical difference among them(P＞0.050).

Conclusion

Using FCM to study the biological characteristics of early and advanced breast cancer and determine the DNA contents has guiding significance in clinical assessment of prognosis and clinical choice of therapy.

Key words: Breast neoplasms;Flow cytometry; DNA contents