heterogeneity of dna ploidy in endometrial carcinoma: comparison of different tissue samples obtained during diagnosis and treatment.

Aim: Comparison of DNA ploidy status of different tumour tissue samples (fresh/frozen vs. paraffin-embedded; curettage vs. hysterectomy samples) obtained during diagnosis and treatment of patients with endometrial carcinoma.

Patients And Methods: DNA ploidy status and conventional prognostic parameters were recorded for 74 patients with endometrial carcinoma prospectively.

Results: In 59 (79.7%) patients the DNA status was described as diploid in all analyzed tissue samples. The remaining 15 (20.3%) cases were described as DNA aneuploid in at least one of the corresponding tissue samples. The concordance between DNA ploidy status in fresh vs. paraffin-embedded hysterectomy samples as well as curettage vs. hysterectomy paraffin-embedded samples was high (kappa coefficient κ=0.6348, 95% confidence interval CI=0.3673-0.9023, and p=0.6408, 95% CI=0.3977-0.8838), however, the methods are not interchangeable.

Conclusion: The DNA ploidy discordance observed in our study group seems to document intratumoral heterogeneity that should be expected when applying DNA ploidy status in the clinical management of endometrial carcinoma.