The prognostic significance of stage, tumor size, cellular atypia and DNA ploidy in uterine leiomyosarcoma.

To analyze the significance of DNA ploidy in uterine leiomyosarcoma, the traditional clinical and histopathological prognostic variables and DNA ploidy were studied in 70 patients with histologically verified uterine leiomyosarcoma. Evaluable flow cytometric DNA histograms from paraffin-embedded tissue from the tumor were obtained in 58 patients. In univariate analysis tumor diameter, FIGO stage and presence of residual disease after primary surgery were highly significant (p < 0.001) and also DNA ploidy (p = 0.043), age (p = 0.017), and menopause status (p = 0.028) obtained significance. Cellular atypia was almost significant (p = 0.056), while mitotic count, malignancy grade and vessel invasion were not. In Cox's multivariate analysis, FIGO-stage was found to be the most important prognostic factor (p < 0.001), followed by cellular atypia (p = 0.007) and tumor diameter (p = 0.016). DNA ploidy did not obtain significance when categorized as diploid/non-diploid. Patients with tumors with multiple aneuploid cell populations had a very poor prognosis. When categorized as multiple aneuploidy versus all other ploidy groups, DNA ploidy obtained marginal significance in multivariate analysis (p = 0.054). Tumor diameter, stage and cellular atypia are important prognostic parameters in uterine leiomyosarcomas.