[Long-term survival in terms of DNA-RNA contents in breast cancer].

: Fifty-nine primary breast cancers were analyzed by flow cytometric cellular DNa-RNA contents stained by acridine orange simultaneous DNA-RNA double staining. Forty-three cases (72.9%) out of 59 had abnormal stemlines (DNA aneuploidy), and 16 normal ones (DNA diploidy). RNA indices widely ranged from 1.41 to 9.02 (2.99). There was no correlation between DNA indices and RNA indices. The patients with DNA diploidy had a better prognosis than those with DNA aneuploidy, but the differences were not significant. The patients with a high RNA index of more than 4.0 had a significantly poorer prognosis than those with an index of less than 4.0. Those results suggest that RNA contents, and DNA contents are independent prognostic factors, and especially RNA contents may be a good prognostic factor in long-term survival in breast cancer.