title: DNA ploidy and S-phase fraction as prognostic factors in surgically resected gastric carcinoma: a 7-year prospective study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  DNA ploidy and S-phase fraction (SPF) measured by DNA flow cytometry (FC) have been previously shown to correlate with several clinicopathological variables in several types of tumours.
  
  
  METHODS
  DNA FC was performed on multiple frozen tumour samples obtained from 115 patients undergoing curative surgery for gastric cancer (GC). The findings were prospectively tested for correlation with traditional clinicopathological indicators of prognosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 20 tumours (17.4%) were diploid, 46 (40.0%) monoclonal and 49 (42.6%) multiclonal. Excluding 4 patients who died within 1 month of surgery, high SPF (>9.6%) was detected in 55 patients (49.6%) and was found to be significantly associated with vascular invasion and multiclonality (p=0.02). An association of borderline statistical significance emerged with macroscopic type (p=0.06) and pN and pM status (p=0.07). Multivariate regression analysis did not show a significant effect of SPF (p=0.11) or DNA ploidy (p=0.28) on 7-year survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Aneuploidy appears to be a prognostic factor of low penetrance, whereas SPF is a more promising parameter of tumour aggressiveness in patients with GC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Pathology and Oncology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy. gabriella.nesi@unifi.it
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nesi
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.forename: Calogero
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saieva
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caldini
authors.forename: Lucia Roberta
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Girardi
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zanna
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rapi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bechi
authors.forename: Camillo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cortesini
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Palli
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005743:Gastrectomy; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011003:Ploidies; D011379:Prognosis; D016196:S Phase; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery