[Study of heterogeneity in DNA ploidy and its clinical-pathological significance in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma].

In order to investigate the intratumoral DNA ploid heterogeneity in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its significance, nuclear DNA ploidy of 80 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus were determined for multiple samples obtained from the same tumor, using a flow cytometry (FCM) technique. The results showed that: (1) DNA indeces ranged from 7.7-1.74, and the incidence of DNA aneuploidy was 88.8% (71/80) in this series; (2) of 80 cases, (47.5% 38 cases) showed intratumoral heterogeneity in DNA ploidy (3) the heterogeneity in DNA ploidy was related to the extent of wall penetration by tumor, the incidnce of lymph node metastasis and patient's prognosis, not to histological grades and size of tumor. The results from this study indicated that DNA ploidy heterogeneity may be a exact indicator in reflecting the biological characteristics of tumor and patient's prognosis than DNA aneuploidy from single site sampling.