Tumor size and karyometric variables in brain astrocytoma.

Purpose: To show any possible correlation of some karyometric variables with tumor size in patients with brain astrocytoma, in order to confirm karyometry as an objective histological method.

Patients And Methods: The study included 63 patients of different ages and both genders with brain astrocytoma histologically confirmed on the surgically removed material. In all patients maximal tumor excision was done, and all were postoperatively treated according to different therapeutic protocols. Tumor size (preoperative CT scan) was correlated with the duration of survival and the values of some karyometric tumor variables: area, density, maximal axis, mean axis, minimal axis, circumference, roundness, integrated optical density (IOD) and number of nuclei.

Results: Patients were separated into 3 groups according to the average tumor diameter. There were 34 cases of medium-sized tumors, 12 of small and 17 of large-sized tumors, and their respective survival was 83, 97 and 24 weeks. Patients with large tumors had statistically shorter survival compared to those with medium and small tumors (log-rank test, p=0.0122). Seven out of 9 examined karyometric variables were significantly related (p<0.05) to the tumor size: area, maximal axis, mean axis, minimal axis, circumference, roundness and IOD.

Conclusion: Patients with larger tumors have shorter survival. The results of our morphometric analysis of the tumor cell nuclei, after correlation with CT findings, revealed that nuclear pleomorphism and larger nuclear size are associated with larger brain astrocytomas.