Flow cytometric DNA analysis of adrenocortical tumors in children

✍ Scribed by Suzanne R. Taylor; Mario Roederer; Robert F. Murphy

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 431 KB
• Volume: 59
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19870615)59:12<2059::aid-cncr2820591216>3.0.co;2-x

✦ Synopsis

Flow cytometric DNA analysis of isolated nuclei was performed on 14 lesions occurring in ten children with adrenocortical tumors. Unimodal DNA content distributions were obtained from seven tumors occurring in patients without metastases 2 to 18 years after diagnosis. Abnormal DNA contents were detected in all four primary lesions, which subsequently metastasized, and in the tumor of one patient who was followed for less than 2 years. Paraffin and frozen preparations were virtually identical, as were the analyses of the primary, recurrent, and metastatic disease occurring in one patient. These observations suggest that DNA content abnormalities detected by flow cytometry correlate with metastases, and may provide an objective measure of the biologic potential of these tumors.

Cancer 59:2059-2063, 1987.

N MANY ADULT SOLID TUMORS, DNA content abnor-I malities have been shown to occur and may be of prognostic significance in some types of tumors.'4 It is, however, essential that the significance of DNA content abnormalities with respect to clinical outcome be established for each tumor type. In this study, flow cytometric DNA analysis was performed retrospectively on all adrenocortical tumors diagnosed between 1958 and 1985 at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to determine whether DNA content abnormalities correlate with the development of metastases. The results suggest that DNA analysis may provide an objective measure of the biologic potential for metastases in adrenocortical tumors.

Materials and Methods

Ten patients with the diagnosis of adrenocortical tumor were identified by review of the surgical files at Children's