RESUMO
Retrospective study of DNA ploidy was performed on cytologic slides derived from 30 patients with malignant melanoma (stage IV) before interleukin-2 (IL-2) treatment. Twelve patients were tested after two courses of treatment. Diploid tumors were detected in 4, aneuploid - 26. Significant differences in survival versus DNA ploidy (p=0.025) and response to treatment (p=0.016) were found by use of single-factor analysis (Caplan-Meyer). However, multivariate proportional-hazard regression method (Cox) identified high prognostic relevance (p=0.00007) of a combination of 5 factors: DNA ploidy (p=0.008), gender (p=0.015), blood group (p=0.015), sum total of metastasis diameter (p=0.035) and response to treatment (p=0.042). Significant drop in DNA level after treatment was reported in 9 out of 12 patients; no change - 1 and a rise in 2. The post treatment increase involved rapid progression of tumor.