1981 Volume 14 Issue 1 Pages 24-34
Both DNA and protein levels of cells on the cytological specimens obtained from 12 normal individuals, 3 cases of cervical dysplasia, 2 cases of carcinoma in situ, 11 cases of cervical cancer and 4 cases of endometrial carcinoma were measured by combined DNA and protein cytofluorometry.
In cervical dysplasia, the percentage of cells in which DNA values exceeded normal diploid-tetraploid region was high in accordance with the intensity of epithelial atypia. The DNA and protein distribution patterns of severe dysplasia were mostly similar to those of carcinoma in situ. In all the cases of uterine cancer measured, both DNA and protein levels of representative cells were abnormally elevated, exhibiting hyperploidy and aneuploidy in their DNA and protein content. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was observed between DNA and protein values in a linear regression analysis. The parallelism between DNA and protein values was more evident in invasive cervical cancer than in carcinoma in situ. Therefore, it is suggested that an abnormal elevation of both DNA and protein levels in neoplastic cells may be related to tumor invasiveness.
The present study suggests that combined DNA and protein cytofluorometry enables us to identify uterine neoplastic cells quantitatively and facilitates discriminate ion of intraepithelial neoplasia from invasive cancer with respect to their DNA and protein levels.
