DNA ploidy and karyotype in recurrent and metastatic soft tissue sarcomas.

To study mechanisms involved in evolution of soft tissue sarcomas, we compared DNA ploidy and karyotypes at different stages of their disease in two patients with myxoid liposarcomas (MLS), one with a fibrosarcoma (FS), and two with rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS). None of the MLS samples revealed clearcut histologic changes in later samples as compared to their primaries, and the DNA ploidy in all samples was diploid. In one patient karyotypes at four different times during the 19 yr of his disease all revealed a t(11;12) (p15;q13), but additional clonal chromosomal abnormalities occurred only in later recurrences. In another patient the karyotypes obtained in the 26th and 28th yr of his disease were similar and included the t(12;16) (q13;p11), characteristic of MLS. A comparison with karyotypes of six other MLS patients at different disease stages suggests that the presence of a t(12;16) may correlate with less aggressive clinical behavior. The histology of the FS remained low-grade and the DNA ploidy diploid. The karyotype, however, showed evolution. In both MLS and FS, chromosomal changes thus seem to be a more sensitive marker for tumor progression than histologic changes or DNA ploidy. In one embryonal RMS, karyotypes obtained 7 and 11 yr after the primary diagnosis were different but clearly had a common "progenitor." In one alveolar RMS, the primary and the synchronous lung and lymph node metastases all revealed a t(2;13). The findings in RMS suggest that polyploidization is an early event in tumor evolution, especially in the alveolar subtype, which may be followed by additional chromosomal changes. In addition, DNA ploidy was measured in eight other RMSs. Among the RMSs the embryonal subtype was characterized by DNA aneuploidy, whereas three of the alveolar cases were in the tetraploid range and one was peridiploid. In local recurrences and in metastases changes in DNA index were observed in half the cases.