Flow-cytometric prognostic factors for the survival of patients with ovarian carcinoma: a 5-year follow-up study.

Fresh surgical specimens of 37 patients with previously untreated ovarian carcinomas were investigated by means of flow cytometry. The aim of the study was to look for cellular prognostic factors, in addition to the well-known clinical prognostic factors, of survival time for these patients. All patients underwent chemotherapy after surgery, and all patients had a minimum of 5 years of follow-up. Patients with diploid or near-diploid tumors (DNA index less than or equal to 1.25) survived significantly longer than those with aneuploid tumors (DNA index greater than 1.25, P = 0.02). Patients whose tumors showed a high proportion of SG2M phase cells (greater than 17%) or a low proportion of G0/G1 phase cells had shorter survival times than those with tumors with a low proportion of SG2M phase tumor cells (less than or equal to 17%, P = 0.01) or a high proportion of G0/G1 phase tumor cells. There is no significant relationship between cytometric data and stage. Different surgical procedures, cytostatic treatment, histological tumor type, and differentiation had no significant effects on the survival time of patients in this study. Thus, the data from this study demonstrate strong cytometric prognostic factors of the survival of patients with ovarian carcinomas.