Cytometric evidence of cytogenetic and proliferative heterogeneity of human solid tumors

✍ Scribed by Carlo Nervi; Gianna Badaracco; Anna Maisto; Francesco Mauro; Donatella Tirindelli-Danesi; Giuseppe Starace

• Book ID: 102137290
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 451 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0196-4763
• DOI: 10.1002/cyto.990020507

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Flow cytometry is a widely recognized method of rapidly assessing the ploidy and proliferative status of experimental and solid tumors. In the present work, a variety of human cancers from various sites (lung, head and neck, etc.), of traditional interest in our laboratory, have been analyzed. In agreement with a number of recent reports, a general heterogeneity of human solid tumors can be evidenced. In particular: (a) solid tumors are characterized by a variable degree of aneuploidy; (b) the internal structure of solid tumors is highly heterogeneous especially with respect to the fraction of aneuploid malignant cells and their distribution through the cycle phases; and (c) some solid tumors are also characterized by the presence, to a variable extent, in the tumor of mass of multiple cell clones. Static fluorimetry of Feulgen‐stained (mitotic) single cells offers a way to confirm this kind of observations.