Nucleolar organiser regions (AgNORs) related to histopathological characteristics and survival in prostatic adenocarcinoma
Eskelinen, M.; Lipponen, P.; Syrjänen, K.
Anticancer Research 12(5): 1635-1640
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0250-7005 PMID: 1444230 Document Number: 400591
The number of silver stained nucleolar organiser regions (AgNORs) was assessed in biopsy specimens of 78 patients with prostatic adenocarcinoma followed up for a mean of 15.6 years. The number of Ag-NORs was related to histological features, clinical stage, DNA ploidy, S-phase fraction (SPF) and clinical outcome. In 31/36 (86%) of grade I tumours on average less than 3.5 AgNORs/nucleus were present, whereas of grade III tumours 8/18 (44%) showed usually more than 3.5 Ag-NORs/nucleus (p = 0.0163). The number of Ag-NORs was significantly related to mean nuclear area (NA) (p = 0.017) and to SD of nuclear area (p = 0.05). The Ag-NORs were not related significantly to clinical stage, perineural infiltration, lymphatic infiltration, DNA ploidy, SPF, G2 fraction or M/V index, although there was a clear trend between the variables. In survival analysis, the degree of lymphatic infiltration (LI) (P = 0.009) predicted survival, whereas AgNORs had no significant prognostic value albeit a trend was observed. In T1-T2 tumours, histological grade (p = 0.05), PNI (p = 0.04) and SPF (p = 0.0076) predicted survival.