DNA flow cytometry: a predictor of a high-risk group in cervical cancer.

We studied the relationship between the 5-year disease-free interval or the occurrence of distant metastases, and the flow cytometric nuclear DNA content in a group of 55 patients treated by radiation for squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix, stages Ib-IIIb (FIGO). The diploid DNA content was associated with a better prognosis and a lower incidence of distant metastases, while aneuploid tumors tended to be prognostically unfavorable and had distant metastases more often. We consider the flow cytometric nuclear DNA content a prospective prognostic parameter in squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix treated by radiotherapy.