Studies on the DNA content of breast carcinoma cells with neuroendocrine differentiation / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To make quantitative analysis of DNA content of breast cancer with neuroendocrine (NE) cells and its significance.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Using MIPS-III image analyzer, DNA content and 9 parameter measurements of the tumor nuclei were made in both NE positive (17) and negative (64) breast carcinomas.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Out of 81 breast carcinomas, 17 cases were NE positive while 64 cases were NE negative. In the NE (+) cases, the integral optic density, mean optic density, DNA index, DNA stemlines peak, > 5c aneuploidy cells and the rate of aneuploidy cells were all lower than those in the NE negative breast carcinoma cases (P < 0.01). The positive rates of NE cells were 32.5% and 7.9% in grade I - II breast carcinomas and in grade III breast carcinomas respectively with significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Our study shows that NE (+) breast carcinomas have lower DNA parameters than NE (-) breast carcinomas, suggesting that NE (+) breast carcinomas have lower malignancy.</p>