1994 Volume 30 Issue 5 Pages 886-893
Clinical usefulness and limitation of DNA ploidy as a prognostic indicator was assessed in neuroblastoma by retrospective analysis in the patients with this disease experienced during the period from 1971 to 1990 at the Kobe Children's Hospital. Fifty-seven patients subjected to this study were divided into two groups by their DNA ploidy; DNA aneuploidy (AP) (n=33) vs DNA diploidy/tetraploidy (DTP) (n=24). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis (5 years) disclosed that there was a statistically significant difference between each combination of the two groups; AP vs. DTP (82% vs. 29% , p<0.001), AP vs. DTP in age below 12 months (100% vs. 43%, p<0.001), However, there was no significant difference in AP vs. DTP in age over 13 months (50% vs. 23%, p>0.05). In conclusion, DNA ploidy is useful in predicting prognosis in the patients with neuroblastoma of age below 12 months. However, that is not the case in those with age over 13 months.
