Relationship between proliferation,DNA proliferative fraction,DNA ploidy and survival in gastric cancer patients

AIM: To evaluate the relationship between cell proliferation, DNA proliferative fraction (S+G2/M), DNA ploidy, biological features and survival in gastric cancer patients. METHODS: Proliferation, DNA proliferative fraction and DNA ploidy were analyzed by flow cytometry using standard techniques. RESULTS: No correlation between proliferation and DNA proliferative fraction (P>0.05) was observed. Likewise, there was no correlation between proliferation, DNA proliferative fraction and survival (P>0.05), nor was there a difference between proliferation, DNA ploidy and clinical pathological variables (P>0.05). Using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and the Log-rank test, statistic difference was found in patients with DNA diploid tumors and those with DNA aneuploid tumors (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Proliferation and DNA proliferative fraction in gastric cancer do not appear to correlate with survival, but DNA ploidy can be used as a prognostic factor in gastric cancer.