Flow cytometric DNA analysis of gastric cancer that is invading the muscularis propria

Objective: To find out if there is any correlation between the DNA aneuploidy in gastric cancer that is invading the muscularis propria and survival. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Teaching hospital, Japan. Subjects: 52 patients who underwent gastric resection for gastric cancer that was invading the muscularis propria, and for whom clinical follow-up data were available. Interventions: Flow cytometric measurement of DNA in paraffin-embedded tissue. Main outcome measures: Correlation between survival and clinicopathological variables including ploidy. Results: 22 (42%) of the cases were aneuploid and 30 (58%) were diploid. The lymph node status and DNA ploidy were the significant prognostic variables, but a multivariate analysis showed that only DNA ploidy was significant. Conclusions: Nuclear DNA ploidy is an independent prognostic factor in gastric cancer that is invading the muscularis propria.