Transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis: nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid ploidy studied by flow cytometry.

Nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid ploidy analysis by flow cytometry was performed successfully on 109 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens of transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis. Tumor tissues were from patients who were operated upon between 1960 and 1975, so that long-term clinical followup was available. There were good correlations among deoxyribonucleic acid ploidy pattern and histological grade, pathological stage and clinical outcome. For high grade, high stage tumors deoxyribonucleic acid ploidy pattern provided no additional prognostically important information. However, for the more common low grade, low stage tumors the occasional detection of deoxyribonucleic acid aneuploidy patterns identified an important subgroup of patients who experienced significantly poorer survival.