Mullen P, Miller W R
Department of Surgery, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Br J Cancer. 1989 May;59(5):688-91. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1989.143.
The present study was carried out to determine the variation in DNA content between multiple fine needle aspirates (FNA) of the same tumour from patients with breast cancer. Analysis of different aliquots of the same FNA showed good reproducibility in terms of cell cycle distribution and DNA index. Duplicate FNAs taken from different sites in nine of 11 excised tumours showed similar reproducibility. However, two of the aneuploid tumours displayed substantial variations in the distribution of cell populations between the duplicate samples. Sequential FNAs with no intervening therapy were obtained from the same tumour in 17 patients; one at the time of diagnosis and the other at biopsy 1-3 weeks later. Only five cases showed no variation between the sequential FNAs; the remaining 12 displayed different DNA profiles. A further 13 patients were studied before and during systemic therapy. While there was no variation between sequential FNAs in four patients, marked differences in the DNA profile were observed in the remaining nine patients undergoing treatment, the changes not necessarily being associated with clinical response to therapy. It is concluded that the monitoring of cellular changes by DNA analysis of sequential FNAs may be complex and subject to problems associated with heterogenecity.
本研究旨在确定乳腺癌患者同一肿瘤多次细针穿刺抽吸物（FNA）之间的DNA含量变化。对同一FNA的不同等分试样进行分析，结果显示在细胞周期分布和DNA指数方面具有良好的可重复性。从11个切除肿瘤中的9个不同部位采集的重复FNA显示出相似的可重复性。然而，两个非整倍体肿瘤在重复样本之间的细胞群体分布上表现出显著差异。在17例患者中，从同一肿瘤获取了无中间治疗间隔的连续FNA；一次在诊断时采集，另一次在1 - 3周后的活检时采集。只有5例在连续FNA之间未显示出差异；其余12例显示出不同的DNA谱。另外13例患者在全身治疗前和治疗期间接受了研究。虽然4例患者的连续FNA之间没有差异，但在其余9例接受治疗的患者中观察到DNA谱有明显差异，这些变化不一定与治疗的临床反应相关。得出的结论是，通过对连续FNA进行DNA分析来监测细胞变化可能很复杂，并且会受到与异质性相关问题的影响。
