A FLOW CYTOMETRIC DNA ANALYSIS OF MEDULLARY-THYROID CARCINOMA

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 1983

Authors

TANGEN, KO (Author) Other; LINDMO, T (Author) Other; Sobrinho Simoes, M (Author) FMUP; JOHANNESSEN, JV (Author) Other

Journal

Title: American Journal of Clinical Pathology

Vol. 79

Pages: 172-177

ISSN: 0002-9173

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 29 Citations

Scopus - 8 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-001-X5D

Abstract (EN): Flow cytometric DNA analysis of biopsy specimens from 10 patients with medullary carcinoma of the thyroid (MCT) was performed to evaluate the possible value of such data as indicators of the biologic behavior of these tumors. Some of the tumors had a unimodal distribution of nuclear DNA content, whereas others were bimodal. The mean modal DNA content in the cells of unimodal medullary carcinomas was not higher than that in the cells of thyroid parenchyma with a normal histologic appearance. This finding contradicts previous reports based on conventional cytophotometry. Bimodal DNA histograms were found in biopsy specimens from 4 patients, and the 2 patients with predominantly spindle-shaped cells belonged to this group. The total of 9 biopsy specimens with bimodal DNA distributions were all from metastatic foci. Bimodal patterns were found, however, to co-exist with unimodal patterns, when several samples were examined from the same case. Bimodality or more severe aneuploidy did not seem to be related to shorter survival of the patients. The mean value of the percentage of cells in S-phase in our MCT series was higher than in follicular but lower than in anaplastic carcinomas. This fits well with clinical studies, where medullary carcinoma patients have been found to live longer than patients with follicular carcinomas but for a shorter time than those having anaplastic carcinomas.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6