Cytogenetic and flow cytometric DNA analysis in renal cell carcinoma.

Cytogenetic and flow cytometric DNA analyses were performed on 37 tumor samples from 16 patients with renal cell carcinoma. 36 cultures were chromosomally abnormal and 1 was normal. The most frequent abnormality was trisomy or tetrasomy of chromosome 7 (13 of 16 tumors), suggesting that this abnormality might be a primary change in renal cell carcinoma. Abnormalities of chromosome 3 were seen in 9 of 16 tumors (56%). Eight of 11 tumors (73%) with cytogenetic results from multiple tumor samples showed intratumor cytogenetic heterogeneity. Twelve of the 16 patients had aneuploid tumors, and 4 had homogeneously diploid tumors. DNA index correlated with chromosome number. No association was found between cytogenetic results and clinical stage.