Single cell DNA cytophotometry in clinical stage I malignant melanoma. Relationship to prognosis.

Histological sections of 50 clinical stage I cutaneous melanomas were analyzed by single cell DNA cytophotometry. Forty-two percent of the melanomas had diploid modal values. Ploidy was not significantly related to the level of invasion, melanoma thickness or prognosis. These results are contradictory to published data from flow cytophotometry which, however, differ inter alia concerning patient materials and follow-up times. Mean nuclear area was in our study significantly correlated to the prognosis.