A comparative study on hepatocellular carcinoma between South Africans and Japanese from the viewpoint of nuclear DNA content.

Nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) content of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in 41 South African and 47 Japanese patients at autopsy was analysed by dual-wavelength microspectrophotometry. The DNA distribution patterns were classified as type I, II, III or IV and as low ploidy (types I, II) or high ploidy (types III, IV), according to the degree of dispersion. We found a significantly higher incidence of high ploidy in South African HCC than in Japanese HCC. Moreover, type IV was significantly more frequent among South Africans than among the Japanese. These findings demonstrate that large differences in biological characteristics and clinical behaviour of HCC between South Africa and Japan may reflect differences in DNA distribution patterns which we observed between these two races.