The value of flow cytometric analysis in patients with gastric cancer
H. Johnson Jr, C. Belluco, S. Masood, A. M. Abou-Azama, L. Kahn and L. Wise
Department of Surgery, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY.
Tumors in the gastric cardia and the body/antrum were studied to determine
the effect of ploidy and S-phase fractions on patient survival. Forty-two
percent of tumors were located in the cardia and 58% in the body/antrum.
Nodal metastases occurred more often with cardia tumors than with
body/antrum tumors (86% vs 65%). Aneuploidy occurred more frequently in
patients with cardia tumors than in patients with body/antrum tumors (39%
vs 20%). Metastasis to lymph nodes was more common in patients with
aneuploidy than in patients with diploidy (31% vs 7%). S-phase fractions
were not different between aneuploid and diploid tumors. More patients with
diploid cancer were alive at 5 years than were patients with aneuploid
tumors (90% vs 10%). We conclude that primary cellular differences in
gastric tumors of the cardia or body/antrum determine patient survival.
