Relationship between proliferative activity and ploidy level in a series of 530 human brain tumors, including astrocytomas, meningiomas, schwannomas, and metastases.

By identifying six DNA histogram types (diploid, hyperdiploid, triploid, hypertriploid, tetraploid, and polymorphic) in a series of 206 astrocytic tumors, we showed recently that patients with hypertriploid astrocytic tumors have a better possibility of survival than patients with other DNA histogram-type related tumors. In the present work DNA histogram type and proliferation index (S-phase fraction) are characterized in a series of 530 adult tumors from the central and peripheral nervous systems. Of these 530 tumors, there were 79 nerve sheath tumors, 181 meningiomas, 221 astrocytic tumors, and 49 metastases. Analysis was performed by means of digital cell image examination of Feulgen-stained nuclei from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumors. The data reveal that there was a majority of diploid tumors (66%) in the primary tumor group (nerve sheath tumors, meningiomas, and astrocytic tumors), while aneuploid tumors were in a marked majority (90%) in the secondary (metastatic) brain tumor group, with a predominance (47%) of the polymorphic tumor type. Independently of tumor histopathologic group, the hypertriploid-type tumors proliferated less actively than the five other types. Such a feature might partly explain the better prognosis associated with hypertriploid astrocytic tumors as compared with what occurs with respect to the other DNA histogram-type related tumors.