Determining the degree of malignancy of individual cases of mammary carcinoma on the basis of clinical, morphological and biochemical parameters.

The histological and histochemical findings and the clinical course of 160 cases of breast cancer were compared with the biochemical values of the content and pattern of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) in the tumour tissue. For this purpose the cases were divided into 4 groups of increasing malignancy of the tumours, based on the morphological data and the clinical course after radical mastectomy (4-9 years follow-up). Samples of tumour tissue were examined biochemically-analytically for their total content of glycosaminoglycans and for their mg/g values of hyaluronic acid (H), chondroitin-4- and chondroitin-6-sulphates (CA + CC), dermatan sulphate (CB), heparan sulphate (HpS) and component (K). The statistical processing by means of the method of "discriminant analysis" of the corresponding GAG values in relation to the degree of malignancy displayed by the tumours yielded the following results: 1) the glycosaminoglycan patterns of the mammary carcinoma have characteristic features in common for the large majority of cases; 2) an exception of about 5% of the cases developed carcinomata with a very high (up to 100%) content of component. These cases generally have a more favourable clinical course (group 1); 3) the higher the ratio of hyaluronic acid to chondroitin sulphates the better the prognosis (groups 1 and 2, respectively). A ratio of hyaluronic acid to chondroitin sulphates under 0.5 indicates a poor prognosis (group 3 and 4, respectively); 4) high values of heparan sulphate and small ratios of hyaluronic acid to heparan sulphate also signal an unfavourable prognosis (groups 3 or 4). We consider that the above results are a means of defining the degree of malignancy of the breast tumours.