A study of proliferative activity of soft tissue sarcomas

Proliferative activity of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) in 31 cases was examined by histologic grading, mitotic count, DNA analysis by flow cytometry, and immunohistochemical procedures with monoclonal antibody Ki-67. Aneuploid was found in 12 of 16 cases (75.0%) with Grade 3, and in 4 of 15 cases (26.7%) with Grade 1,2 (P = 0.0121). Tumors with more than 100 Ki-67 positive cells per 10 high power fields (HPF) had a higher rate of aneuploid (81.3%) than those with less than 100 Ki-67 per 10 HPF (26.7%) (P = 0.0038). There was significant correlation between Grade and DNA index (DI) (r = 0.4901, P = 0.0051), Grade and Ki-67 (r = 0.4636, P = 0.0086), Ki-67 and DI (r = 0.6368, P = 0.0001). The results indicate that DI and reactivity of tumor cells to Ki-67 may reflect proliferative activity and be helpful for clinicians to judge the biological behaviour of tumors more accurately and objectively. Hence, supplementary to the grading of STS, DI and Ki-67 score could be useful as prognostic parameters for clinical invetigation of multimodality therapy for individual patients.