title: Prediction of survival by thymidine labelling index in patients with resistant ovarian carcinoma.
abstract: The relationship between tumour proliferative activity, evaluated by thymidine labelling index (TLI), clinicopathological variables and clinical outcome, was analysed in a series of 64 chemotherapy-resistant, ovarian cancer patients. The median TLI of 4.6% (range 0.01-45.7) was used as the cut-off to discriminate rapidly from slowly proliferating tumours. Univariate analyses showed a significant advantage in survival for patients with TLI less than or equal to 4.6 (P = 0.0004), ECOG performance status less than or equal to 1 (P = 0.0001) and residual disease after primary surgery less than or equal to 2 cm (P = 0.019). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that performance status was the only independent prognostic variable, although TLI was the last covariate removed from the Cox's regression model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca Sul Cancro, Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alama
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Merlo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chiara
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Muttini
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Guido
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nicolò
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Conte
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ragni
mesh_terms: D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D002455:Cell Division; D004351:Drug Resistance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D013936:Thymidine / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D013936:Thymidine