title: Prognostic significance of flow cytometric DNA analysis in node-negative breast cancer patients.
abstract: Flow cytometric DNA analysis using paraffin-embedded tumor blocks was done retrospectively on 155 node-negative breast cancers. The median duration of follow-up in patients still alive at the time of analysis was 10 years. Tumor aneuploidy was correlated significantly with increased tumor size (P = 0.003) and higher tumor grade (P less than 0.001). No significant correlation between tumor ploidy and patient age was found. Patients with diploid tumors had a significantly improved relapse-free and overall survival compared with patients with aneuploid tumors (P = 0.0001). In a Cox multivariate model with parameters including ploidy, histologic grade, tumor size, and patient age, ploidy (P = 0.02) and tumor size (P = 0.05) emerged as significant independent predictors of overall survival. Only ploidy was independently significant in the analysis of relapse-free survival. In conclusion, the current study indicates that flow cytometric measurement of DNA ploidy is a powerful prognostic indicator in node-negative breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, St. Joseph's Hospital, Tampa, Florida.
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011003:Ploidies; D011379:Prognosis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm