heterogeneity of dna ploidy in endometrial carcinoma: comparison of different tissue samples obtained during diagnosis and treatment

Comparison of DNA ploidy status of different tumour tissue samples (fresh/frozen vs. paraffin-embedded; curettage vs. hysterectomy samples) obtained during diagnosis and treatment of patients with endometrial carcinoma. DNA ploidy status and conventional prognostic parameters were recorded for 74 patients with endometrial carcinoma prospectively. In 59 (79.7%) patients the DNA status was described as diploid in all analyzed tissue samples. The remaining 15 (20.3%) cases were described as DNA aneuploid in at least one of the corresponding tissue samples. The concordance between DNA ploidy status in fresh vs. paraffin-embedded hysterectomy samples as well as curettage vs. hysterectomy paraffin-embedded samples was high (kappa coefficient κ=0.6348, 95% confidence interval CI=0.3673-0.9023, and p=0.6408, 95% CI=0.3977-0.8838), however, the methods are not interchangeable. The DNA ploidy discordance observed in our study group seems to document intratumoral heterogeneity that should be expected when applying DNA ploidy status in the clinical management of endometrial carcinoma.