Flow cytometric DNA studies in human gastric cancer and polyps.

Flow cytometric DNA studies were performed on cell suspensions of biopsy specimens from gastric tumors and neutral gastric mucosa in 18 patients with gastric cancer and 9 patients with gastric polyps. In cancer, aneuploidy was found in two tumors in the antral and five in the body part of the stomach (39%). The mean DNA index for aneuploid cancers was 1.57. In patients with aneuploid carcinomas three biopsy specimens from uninvolved mucosa also showed aneuploidy. In diploid carcinomas in the antral part of the stomach, the proliferative index (PI) was increased when compared with that of antral mucosa in controls (p less than 0.05). Increased PI was found in uninvolved mucosa in aneuploid carcinomas of the body part of the stomach when compared with that in diploid carcinomas (p less than 0.001). In uninvolved body mucosa in aneuploid carcinomas of the body part significantly reduced levels of acid-beta-glucuronidase (p less than 0.0001) were found when compared with diploid carcinomas. No polyps showed aneuploidy, and the PI in biopsy specimens from patients with gastric polyps did not differ from that in controls.