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Measurement of DNA Content of Archival Material as a Guide to Prognosis

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High-Risk Breast Cancer

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Abstract

Flow cytometry is capable of measuring total DNA content of tens of thousands of cancer cells in minutes, with high precision. From such analyses two distinct and potentially important pieces of information are obtained; tumour DNA index (ploidy) and the percentage of cells in S-phase (% S-phase). There is currently optimism that this information will help in the identification of high risk breast cancer patients, and DNA flow cytometry is indeed now being offered on a routine clinical basis in the United States. Unfortunately, most of the published studies used fresh frozen material submitted for steroid hormone receptor analysis, and clinical follow-up is at best incomplete. The use of paraffin-embedded archival material allows the retrospective analysis of DNA content from defined cohorts of patients with known clinical outcome. This chapter outlines the techniques of DNA flow cytometry, with emphasis on the use of paraffin-embedded material, and reviews the results from three large, recently published series. Although DNA index appears to be a relatively weak prognostic indicator, preliminary results show that % S-phase, which is strongly linked to both nuclear grade and labelling index, could prove a clinically valuable measure of inherent biological aggression.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Sydney Branch), University of Sydney, Blackburn Building, 2006, N.S.W., Australia

    D. W. Hedley

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  1. D. W. Hedley
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Oncology, Cancer Control Agency of British Columbia, 600 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C., V5Z 4E6, Canada

    Joseph Ragaz MD, FRCP

  2. Foundation for Clinical Research Inc., 80 East End Avenue, New York, NY, 10028, USA

    Irving M. Ariel MD

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg

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Hedley, D.W. (1989). Measurement of DNA Content of Archival Material as a Guide to Prognosis. In: Ragaz, J., Ariel, I.M. (eds) High-Risk Breast Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73718-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73718-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-73720-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-73718-3

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