Flow fluorescence cytometry of deoxyribonucleic acid in meningiomas: studies on surgically removed tumor specimens compared with their cells in primary tissue cultures.

Flow cytometric deoxyribonucleic acid analysis was carried out in 15 meningiomas obtained surgically: two were fibroblastic; one was transitional; four were syncytial with few or no mitoses; three were angioblastic; three were syncytial containing many mitoses and focal micronecroses; one was polymorphic; and one was the papillary type. The histograms of nuclei in the surgical specimens were compared with those obtained from primary tissue culture cells prepared from tumor samples. Five diploid meningiomas had abnormal values for their 4C peaks that were also manifested by their tissue culture cells showing either slightly decreased or increased values during a 7- to 14-day period. Strong variations of the histograms were seen in the original material and in the primary tissue culture of the polymorphic tumor and the aneuploid meningioma of the papilary type. It is suspicious that in vitro proliferating meningioma tissue may be an index for a high risk of recurrence. The results of these seven cases are in contrast to eight further meningiomas of this series with more or less "indifferent" diploid histograms, thus suggesting that there could also be a scale of proliferative potentials of the different meningiomas rapidly demonstrable by means of flow fluorescence cytometry.