Flow cytometric analysis of DNA from 98 cases of soft tissue tumors and its clinical significance

The cellular DNA content of 98 soft tissue tumors was determined by means of flow cytometry and the results were discussed in relation to clinical data. It was found that DNA of all 21 benign tumors was diploid, while that of malignant tumors was both diploid and aneuploid. Among 62 sarcomas, 45 were aneuploid (73%). Cell cycle analysis disclosed that diploidy lesions had a low proportion of S and G2 + M cells while most aneuploidy lesions had a high proportion (P less than 0.01). There was a definite correlation between the size of the tumor and the presence of DNA aneuploidy. The results indicate that DNA analysis offers a clinically relevant means of characterizing soft tissue tumors.