A prospective study of pre-treatment cell kinetics and clinical outcome in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To study pre-treatment cell kinetics and their clinical correlations in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).


METHODS
Ninety newly diagnosed NPC patients were studied using in vivo Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling and flow cytometric analysis. Immunohistochemical staining for BrdU and Ki 67 was also performed.


RESULTS
The median S-phase duration (Ts) was 6.2 h (range 3.5-18.7 h), median flow cytometric labeling index (FCM-LI) was 7.4% (1.3-37.6%), and median potential doubling time (Tpot) was 3.6 days (0.5-19.9 days). The median histologic labeling index (H-LI) was 12.4% (1.2-43.3%), and median histologic Tpot (H-Tpot) was 2.1 days (0.5-33.3 days). FCM-LI and H-LI were both positively correlated with Ki67 whereas Tpot and H-Tpot were both negatively correlated with Ki67 and N-stage. In univariate analysis, Tpot and H-Tpot showed a trend for progression free survival. Tpot was significantly associated with local relapse free survival, but lost its significance in multivariate analysis. N-stage was the only significant prognostic factor for all radiotherapy outcomes in both univariate and multivariate analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Tpot was the only pre-treatment cell kinetic parameter for which some evidence was found for an association with survival in NPC patients. Future studies should aim to combine cell kinetic parameters together with other biological markers and clinical parameters to provide more useful prognostic information to guide individual patient's therapy.
Department of Clinical Oncology at the Sir YK Pao Cancer Centre, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong, SAR, China.
Edwin P
EP
Hui
Terence C W
TC
Poon
Peter M L
PM
Teo
Frankie
F
Mo
Benny
B
Zee
Sing F
SF
Leung
Stephen
S
Ho
Tony S K
TS
Mok
Wing H
WH
Kwan
Philip J
PJ
Johnson
Anthony T C
AT
Chan
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D002453:Cell Cycle; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D011003:Ploidies; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016196:S Phase; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine