Eosinophil Infiltration of Human Colonie Carcinomas as a Prognostic Indicator1

In experiments with suspensions of cells from colonie carci nomas, we noted that some colonie carcinomas contain large numbers of eosinophils. We therefore carried out a prospective study with 67 almost consecutive colonie carcinomas in our medical center after optimal fixation and staining for the dem onstration of eosinophils. Infiltration of the primary tumor by eosinophils was found to have marked prognostic significance. The proportion (4 of 17 or 23.5%) of carcinomas with more than 30 eosinophils/sq mm that had mA©tastases was significantly less (p = 0.01 ) than the proportion (31 of 50 or 62.0%) of carcinomas with less than 30 eosinophils/sq mm that had mA©tastases. At 18 months, following the resection of tumor in patients without mA©tastases,all of the patients (9 of 9) with greater than 30 eosinophils/sq mm were alive in contrast to 73.7% (11 of 15) of the patients with less than 30 eosinophils/sq mm. The number of survivors at 18 months for the total population without regard to mA©tastaseswas significantly greater (p = 0.028) for those with greater than 30 eosinophils/sq mm than for those with less than 30 eosinophils/sq mm. We conclude that the quantitative assessment of eosinophils is one of the most important aspects of the microscopic evaluation of this common human tumor.