title: Assessment of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region quantification in benign and malignant bone tumors.
abstract: Quantification of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions has been proposed as a technique that may aid in diagnosing and predicting the biologic behavior of a variety of neoplasms. A 1-step silver staining technique was used to identify and quantify argyrophilic nuclear organizer regions in a series of 96 bone tumor specimens. Malignant bone tumors had a higher mean argyrophilic nuclear organizer region count (3.05 +/- 0.82) than giant cell tumors (1.39 +/- 0.14, p < 0.001) and benign bone tumors (1.51 +/- 0.42, p < 0.001). Despite these differences in mean counts, an overlap of argyrophilic nuclear organizer region scores was observed in some benign and malignant cases. The argyrophilic nuclear organizer region counts of the osteosarcomas were analyzed to determine whether they correlated with tumor behavior. The mean argyrophilic nuclear organizer region count of specimens from patients in whom metastatic disease developed was not significantly different than that of patients who remained disease free.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, St Louis University Health Sciences Center, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Clohisy
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schajowicz
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Vaziri
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sotelo-Avila
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Betts
mesh_terms: D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D002452:Cell Count; D002813:Chondrosarcoma / Q000473:pathology; D018212:Giant Cell Tumor of Bone / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region / Q000737:chemistry*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012512:Sarcoma, Ewing / Q000473:pathology; D016622:Silver Staining / Q000379:methods