Correlation between nucleolar organizer regions visualized by silver staining and the growth rate in lung adenocarcinoma.
BACKGROUND
The value of nucleolar organizer regions (NOR) visualized by silver staining (AgNOR) for the histologic differentiation, pathologic staging, and estimation of growth rate was assessed by the investigation of paraffin sections from 58 lung adenocarcinomas. AgNOR consist of NOR-associated proteins, and the number of AgNOR might be related to proliferative activity.


METHODS
In lung adenocarcinoma, the growth rate can be measured by means of chest radiographs. Using this technique, the authors studied the correlation between the mean number of AgNOR and growth rate.


RESULTS
The mean number of AgNOR ranged from 1.8 to 6.3 (mean +/- standard deviation, 4.0 +/- 0.8). Neither the degree of histologic differentiation nor the pathologic staging was related to the AgNOR count. The tumor growth rate was estimated on the basis of the doubling time in the chest radiographs of 13 patients. The doubling time ranged from 80 to 760 days. There was a high inverse correlation between the AgNOR count and the doubling time (r = -0.910; P less than 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Thus, it appears to be possible to use the mean number of AgNOR as an index of proliferative activity.
Ogura
S
S
First Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
Abe
S
S
Sukoh
N
N
Kunikane
H
H
Nakajima
I
I
Inoue
K
K
Kawakami
Y
Y
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D016622:Silver Staining