Acinic cell carcinomas of salivary glands histoprognosis. Value of NORs stained with AgNOR technique and examined with semi-automatic image analysis.
Twenty one patients surgically treated for acinar cell salivary gland carcinomas were studied retrospectively. Four cases were excluded from the results because of an inadequate follow-up time (less than 5 years). The rest was classified into two groups: eleven patients with a favorable outcome were still alive without any recurrence after a mean follow-up period greater than 10 years; in six other patients, recurrences and metastases occurred followed by death in four cases. Previously for such tumors a high degree of histological undifferentiation usually gave rise to a poor prognosis, although some exceptions were noted. Thus, in an attempt to find a more reliable prognosis criterion, we evaluated by semi-quantitative image analysis nucleolar organizer regions by means of AgNOR count and mean area in all these cases. Our results significantly correlated with the clinical prognosis: a high count (more than 3) and a small mean area were always found in tumors with an unfavorable outcome whereas lower counts and larger mean areas were found in tumors with a favourable clinical course. Thus, this method showed promise as establishing the prognosis of acinar cell tumours.
Chomette
G
G
Department of Pathology, Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, France.
Auriol
M
M
Wann
A
A
Guilbert
F
F
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001491:Basophils / Q000473:pathology; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary; D003594:Cytoplasmic Granules / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D012834:Silver; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D015996:Survival Rate
D012834:Silver