Evaluation of esophageal dysplasia by cytofluorometric analysis.

In order to grade objectively and characterize dysplastic and precancerous esophageal epithelium its DNA content was measured by cytofluormetric methods and compared to normal and cancerous esophageal epithelium. This yielded the following results. With transition of the esophageal eipthelium from mild dysplasia to severe dysplasia and finally to in situ carcinoma, Feulgen-DNA values showed patterns characteristic of a tetraploid population. They lacked prominent peaks which were usually observed with invasive carcinomas. Dominant near-tetraploid population and definite tetraploid-octoploid populations were characteristic of severe dysplasia or carcinoma. The mean Feulgen-DNA values were significantly larger in severe dysplasia than in the lesser grade of dysplasia as well as the normal epithelium. However, this was not the rule in the full blown carcinomas. It would appear that the esophageal cytophotometric patterns are analogous to those previously observed in the skin and uterine cervix.