Flow cytometry in invasive endometrial carcinoma. Correlations between DNA content S-phase rate and clinical parameters.

In a prospective study including 185 women with endometrial adenocarcinoma, the DNA-content and the S-phase rate were measured by flow cytometry. The tumors of 138 (75%) patients were peridiploid and those of 47 (25%) were grossly aneuploid. Aneuploid tumors were more common in poorly differentiated tumors than in well and moderately differentiated tumors (p less than 0.0001). S-phase rates were evaluable in 148 (80%) tumors. High S-phase rates were more frequent in stages III + IV than in stages I + II (p less than 0.05) and were also more common in poorly differentiated tumors than in moderately and well differentiated tumors (p less than 0.05). Ploidy levels and S-phase rates were not significantly correlated with age or menopausal status. During the follow-up time (6 to 38 months), 19 patients died of their disease. The number of deaths registered was significantly higher among patients with aneuploid tumors than among patients with peridiploid tumors (p less than 0.002). The proportion of tumors with high S-phase rates was significantly higher than that of tumors with low S-phase rates (p less than 0.0001). These preliminary results indicate that patients with aneuploid tumors or tumors with high S-phase rates are at high risk for early recurrences.