Background: Metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma confers a dismal prognosis. Several prognostic factors are needed to distinguish patients that will benefit from chemotherapy. In this setting, the prognostic impact of DNA ploidy is still unclear.
Materials and methods: The records of 61 patients with metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma were retrospectively reviewed. Response to chemotherapy and overall survival (OS) were assessed and correlated to tumour DNA ploidy index, which was calculated by cytometric image analysis.
Results: The median value of DNA ploidy index was 2.3. Patients with a low index responded better to chemotherapy than those with a higher index (p<0.01). Nevertheless, when the median value was used as a cut-off, no significant correlation of DNA ploidy index with response to chemotherapy (p=0.41) or OS (p=0.09) was observed.
Conclusion: The prognostic role of DNA ploidy in metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma is still debatable. In this study, a low DNA ploidy index was associated with favorable prognosis; however, a suitable cut-off value is not yet available.