title: Prognostic significance of DNA ploidy in oral squamous cell carcinomas. A retrospective flow and image cytometric study with comparison of DNA ploidy in excisional biopsy specimens and resection specimens, primary, tumors, and lymph node metastases.
abstract: Deoxyribonucleic acid ploidy was determined in paraffin-embedded tumor tissue from 116 patients with primary oral squamous cell carcinomas (including 5 carcinomas of the lip and 14 of the tongue) by means of flow cytometry. One hundred six cases were suitable for evaluation (91%). Sixty-eight percent of the cases (n = 72) showed a nondiploid nuclear DNA content. Nondiploidy correlated significantly with presence of lymph node metastases (p < 0.02) but not with tumor stage, grading (World Health Organization), or relapse-free and overall survival. Carcinomas of the lip and tongue turned out to be diploid more frequently than other oral squamous cell carcinomas (p = 0.002). In the 21 cases in which a comparison of DNA content of excisional biopsy specimens and subsequent resection specimens was possible a difference in DNA ploidy was found in one case only. The comparison of primary tumors and their lymph node metastases in 30 cases revealed a discrepancy of DNA content in five cases (17%), which was connected with a shift from nondiploidy to diploidy in four out of five cases. Fifty cases studied in parallel by means of image cytometry with Feulgen-stained tissue sections exhibited a concordance of the ploidy status in 87% and a significant correlation of the DNA index values obtained with both methods (p < 0.01). These results demonstrate that DNA ploidy in oral squamous cell carcinomas is distributed rather homogeneously within the tumors and remains rather stable in the lymph node metastases. Despite a significant correlation between nondiploidy and presence of lymph node metastases, ploidy failed to be a statistically significant parameter for prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinomas in our investigation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology, Universities of Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baretton
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stoll
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fischer-Brandies
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Löhrs
mesh_terms: D000782:Aneuploidy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016014:Linear Models; D008048:Lip Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm