Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma from the aspect of nuclear DNA analysis

: Flow cytometric DNA analysis was done on 302 resected hepatocellular carcinoma and 30 specimens by fine needle aspiration biopsy. Patients with DNA aneuploid tumors had a significant worse prognosis than those with DNA diploid tumors in subdivided groups by curability (p less than 0.01). The recurrence after hepatectomy occurred frequently in DNA aneuploid or non-curative resected group. In a cox multivariate analysis, nuclear DNA content provided significant prognostic value (p = 0.008) as did vascular invasion and intrahepatic metastasis. For the multiple tumors of hepatocellular carcinoma, it is helpful to get the DNA ploidy pattern to diagnose tumors with intrahepatic metastasis or multicentric origin. Nuclear DNA analysis by fine needle aspiration biopsy was useful to determine the treatment method of hepatocellular carcinoma.