DNA content and its relationship with pathology and prognosis in colorectal carcinoma

The DNA content of 181 colorectal cancers was measured by flow cytometry on paraffin-embedded specimens. Eighty five （46.96%） were diploid, 96（53.04%） were aneuploid. The proportions of aneuploidy were significantly lower in the patients with Dukes'stage A（25.00%） and B （47.14%） than in the patients with Dukes'stage C（64.71%） and D（68.42%）. Associations were also found between ploidy and other discreted pathologic variables: histologic type and grade. The cumulated five-years survival was 66.67% and 33.80% for the patients with diploid and aneuplold tumors （P＜0.01）. Analysis of Cox regression revealed that DNA pattern, Dukes'stage and tumor size significantly influenced patients' prognosis. It is suggested that DNA pattern may be an important prognostic factor in colorectal cancer.