Flow cytometric analysis of apoptosis and BCL-2 in primary breast carcinomas: Clinical and biological implications

✍ Scribed by Kim Steck; Timothy McDonnell; Nour Sneige; Adel El-Naggar

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 668 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0196-4763
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0320(19960601)24:2<116::aid-cyto3>3.0.co;2-h

✦ Synopsis

Analysis of programmed cell death (apoptosis), of bcl-2, a critical regulator of this process, and of the proliferative fraction may provide detailed information on the biologic characteristics of tumor cell populations. To investigate the potential role of these parameters in assessing mammary carcinoma, we adapted flow CytomeMc procedures for concurrent measurement of apoptosis, bcl-2 expression, and cell proliferation in 54 primary breast carcinomas and correlated the findings with traditional clinicopathologic information. Overall, a significant inverse relationship between apoptosis levels and bcl-2 expression was observed (P = 0.005). Apoptosis levels correlated significantly with DNA aneu-ploidy (P = 0.03) and S + G2M fractions (P = 0.005) of these tumors. A significant correlation between bcl-2 expression and estrogen receptor positivity (P=O.O5) and DNA diploidy (P=O.O2) was noted. Bcl-2 expression, however, was inversely correlated with S + G2M fractions (P = 0 . 0 0 1 ) . We conclude that analysis of apoptosis and bcl-2 by flow qtometry allows further characterization of tumor cell populations that may be useful for prognostic and therapeutic management of breast carcinoma.