[Flow cytometry of thyroid tumors. Study of fresh tissue in 50 patients].
OBJECTIVE
A measurement of cell DNA content would be highly useful in determining the malignant nature of thyroid tumours in cases without distinctive features such as metastases, capsule invasion or emboli. Abnormal cell ploidy can be recognized with flow cytometry, but it is not known whether such results have diagnostic value. We therefore compared--in a double blind prospective study--the results of flow cytometry and pathologic diagnosis in fresh tumoural and non-tumoural thyroid cells.


METHODS
Fifty unselected cold thyroid nodules were obtained from 50 consecutive patients (40 women, 10 men; age 18-80 years; mean 46) who underwent surgery within a 6 month period. Surrounding non-tumoural tissue was also obtained in 46 of them. Cell ploidy and the percentage of cells in each cell phase was determined with flow cytometry for both tumoural and nontumoural tissues. Two pathologists, unaware of the flow cytometric results, independently established the histologic diagnosis according to the WHO classification.


RESULTS
The pathologic diagnosis was carcinoma in 7 cases (papillary carcinoma 6, vesicular carcinoma 1) and benign adenomas in 43 (29 macrovesicular, 11 microvesicular, 3 oncocytal). All the non-tumoural tissue samples were diploid. All 7 carcinomas were diploid and 10 of the 43 benign adenomas were aneuploid (4 near-diploid, 3 hyperploid, 1 near-tetraploid, 2 multiploid). The mean proliferation index was increased in 5 diploid tumours.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings confirm that cell ploidy measured by flow cytometry is of no diagnostic value in the thyroid gland. It was also revealed that aneuploidy in adenomas may be related to tissue rearrangements of undetermined prognostic significance.
Suissa
J
J
Laboratoire du Service d'Oncologie médicale, Groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris.
Hoang
C
C
Soubrane
C
C
Chigot
J P
JP
Khayat
D
D
Leenhardt
L
L
Aurengo
A
A
Turpin
G
G
Le Charpentier
Y
Y
D000236:Adenoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology
D004273:DNA, Neoplasm
Cytométrie en flux des tumeurs de la thyroïde. étude sur tissu frais chez 50 malades.