Chromosome Analysis of Ascitic Fluids from Patients with Malignant Tumor

Ryu, Seung Wan; Chung, Ki Yong; Kim, Dae Kwang

Abstract

Detecting malignant cells in ascitic fluid from tumor patients is important since the existence of malignant cells in ascitic fluids is related to the prognosis of patients. Various laboratory methods are being used to obtain diagnosis in ascitic fluids, but some ascitic fluids can not be diagnosed reliably. Cytogenetic analysis of ascitic fluid is not used routinely as a laboratory tool. In this presentation a cytogenetic study of the ascitic fluids from 9 patients with malignant tumor was performed by a direct or short-term culture method. According to cytogenetic study, 5 cases had positive findings for malignant cells. One case had a inconclusive result. There were no malignant cells in the remaining 4 cases. On blind cytologic data, no informations could be obtained in 4 out of 9 cases and the remaining 5 cases had negative findings for detecting malignant cells. Among the 5 cases, cytogenetic findings were negative in 3 cases but in the remaining 2 cases, one was reported positive and the other inconclusive each other. In present study, even though the ascitic fluids from 5 patients were subjected to the comparison of the cytologic study with cytogenetic analysis, two different findings could be obtained. Therefore if further study of a large series of cancer patients with ascitic fluids is done, the value of cytogenetic analysis will be clearly shown. In addition, the cytogenetic study of cell present in ascitic fluids can be used as useful adjunct to cytologic study, and also it can indicate that more invasive diagnostic procedures are necessary.