[Cellular kinetics and the nuclear ploidy pattern in relation to the gross pathological classification and location of advanced colorectal cancers as analyzed by DNA-RNA cytofluorometry].

Correlated studies on the cellular kinetics in association with the nuclear ploidy pattern and the pathological morphology of advanced colorectal cancers have been carried out using DNA-RNA cytofluorometry with an AO stain. The results showed that advanced colorectal cancers could be separated into the 3 distinct groups that follow: group I, involving a diploid cell population; group II, a polyploid cell population; and, group II', an aneuploid cell population. The group I type was located in the entire colorectal region, where as groups II and II', were in the sigmoid and rectum. Three groups were mostly Borrmann type 3 cancers, and the gross pathological classification was not found to be related to the ploidy pattern.

[Cell kinetics and histological types of gastric cancer as studied by DNA-RNA cytofluorometry after acridine orange fluorescence staining].

In order to clarify the relation between histological classification and biological behavior of individual tumor cells, we quantitatively analyzed the cell kinetics of 56 advanced gastric cancers using DNA-RNA cytofluorometry after acridine orange fluorescence staining and compared the results with histological findings. The gastric cancers examined could be classified into two main groups based on the ploidy patterns constituting the cell population kinetics. In group I, tumor cells were found to be chiefly composed of diploid cells with many S-phase cells even at their advanced growth stages, and their morphological characteristics were shown to correspond to undifferentiated carcinoma (according to Nakamura & Sugano). In group II, tumor cells were composed of various classes of polyploid cells as well as of diploid cells with an increased number of S-phase cells, and the extent of polyploidization appeared to progress with the growth of the tumor. The morphological characteristics of this group tended to correspond to differentiated adenocarcinoma. It is, therefore, concluded that both the histological structures and cell morphology have close relationships with cell kinetics in the human gastric cancers.

[Cell kinetics and nuclear ploidy pattern in relation to the growth of gastric cancers as analyzed by DNA-RNA cytofluorometry].

We investigated the cell kinetics and nuclear ploidy pattern of human gastric cancers (12 early and 30 advanced cancers) using DNA-RNA cytofluorometry (NIKON SPM-RF1-D) with AO stain. The results showed that the gastric cancers studied could be divided into two main groups on the basis of ploidy pattern determined both by DNA and RNA contents: group I without, and group II with polyploidization. Cells having nuclear DNA contents between 2 n and 4 n were regarded as representing those in the S phase, and it was found that both groups had similar proliferative activity. In group I, cell proliferation without polyploidization seemed to be maintained during tumor growth regardless of the extent of invasion, and the fraction of 2 n cells was 72-94%, compared to 93-99% in control cells from the non-neoplastic gastric epithelium. In group II, however, the extent of polyploidization appeared to be increased in association with both the tumor growth and its invasion into deeper tissues; thus the fraction of 2 n cells was low, ranging from 12 to 79%. Especially, the fraction of 2 n cells in cancers with aneuploid-polyploidization was further decreased to 6-25%. Based on these results, it is hypothesized that, in the early stages of gastric cancers, the cell population may be composed mostly of diploid cells, but with both further tumor development and its invasion, the neoplastic cells may gradually differentiate into two distinct cell populations.

[Cytofluorometric analysis of cell kinetics in relation to tumor growth of advanced gastric cancers].

Correlated studies on both cell kinetics in association with nuclear ploidy pattern and pathological morphology of advanced gastric cancers were carried out using DNA-RNA cytofluorometry (NIKON SPM-RF1-D) with AO stain. The results showed that advanced gastric cancers could be divided into two main groups. Group 1 (12 cases) was the diploid cell population, commonly found in Borrmann type 4 showing diffuse infiltration of cancer cells, and group II (14 cases) was characterized by polyploidization, usually found in Borrmann type 2 or 3 showing adenocarcinomas composed of markedly pleomorphic cells. In addition, we further differentiated from group II four cases of cancers which included aneuploid cells with more pronounced pleomorphism than group II, and classified them as group II'. These results suggest that cell kinetics and nuclear ploidy pattern of the advanced gastric cancers are closely related to pathological characteristics, i.e., groups I and II to undifferentiated (gastric type) and differentiated (intestinal type) carcinomas, respectively.

[Feulgen-DNA cytofluorometry of the liver cell carcinomas].

Twenty-four autopsy cases of liver cell carcinomas were investigated by Feulgen-DNA cytofluorometry (NIKON SPM-RF 1-D) on paraffin-embedded tissue materials. The methods employed for tissue preparation and cytofluorometry were previously reported by us. The ploidy pattern based on cytofluorometry of the liver cell carcinomas exhibited wide DNA content distributions, in which many S phase cells having intermediate DNA content values ranging from diploid level to various, higher ploidy levels were included. From the comparative studies on both the histopathological findings and the ploidy pattern of the liver cell carcinomas, it was indicated that the peak value of the DNA content distribution was shifted from the diploid to the tetraploid level with the increasing appearance of the polyploid cells, and also that the degree of polyploidization appeared to correspond to the extent of the histological malignancy.

[DNA-RNA cytofluorometry for a primary cancer of the stomach and choledochus].

We standardized DNA-RNA cytofluorometry with AO stain using a NIKON SPM-RFI-D instrument for cell smears. We applied this technique in a 72-year-old woman with primary double cancer of the stomach and choledochus. We first suspected malignancy of the choledochus and examined the desquamated cells in the bile cytofluorometrically to obtain by X-Y plotting the irregularly increased polyploid cells with a high percentage of cells in S phase. These polyploid cells and S phase cells were found to have an increased RNA content. Before operation, the presence of another malignancy of the stomach was also ascertained. The surgical specimens were diagnosed histopathologically as well differentiated, tubular adenocarcinoma of the stomach and moderately differentiated, tubular adenocarcinoma of the choledochus. By cytofluorometric analysis similar results were obtained, i.e., polyploidization with increase of S phase cells. Based on these results, we concluded that our method is useful for the diagnosis of alimentary tract malignancy, and that the criteria of malignancy appear to be unusual polyploidization with increased fractions of S phase cells.

[A case report of primary double cancer of the stomach and choledochus].

We encountered a relatively rare case of primary double cancer arising simultaneously from both the stomach and choledochus in a 72-year-old woman with obstructive jaundice. The patient was admitted to Saiseikai Shigaken Hospital, and was diagnosed as having both early gastric cancer at the lesser curvature of the antrum and cancer of the choledochus. She underwent curative pancreato-duodenectomy with extended gastrectomy. One of the resected tumors was histopathologically diagnosed as a well differentiated, tubular adenocarcinoma of the stomach with invasion reaching as deep as the submucosa. The other tumor was a moderately differentiated, tubular adenocarcinoma of the choledochus with lymph node metastases (hepatic, retroligamentic, paracholedochal, and posterior and superior pancreaticoduodenal lymph nodes). Our review of the literature suggests that the incidence of primary double malignancies is on the increase.