title: Proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression in the survival of astrocytoma patients.
abstract: The PC10, a monoclonal antibody against proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), is known to show immunoreactivity in routinely processed paraffin embedded tissue. This antibody was applied to 72 astrocytic tumours from surgical biopsy material obtained in a ten year period. The PCNA labelling index (LI) obtained by image analysis was compared with patient's survival, age at diagnosis, and Karnofsky score as well as the histological grade of tumour. The survival analysis shows that patients with tumour PCNA LI of more than 6% have significantly poorer prognosis than those with 6% and below. In addition, there is also good correlation between PCNA LI with age, Karnofsky and tumour grade. This study suggests that although the PCNA expression of astrocytoma could be a useful predictor of patient's outcome, it is not an independent prognostic factor but has derived its statistical association with survival secondarily through its relationship with tumour grade, age and Karnofsky score.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Ang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plewes
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Begley
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agranovich
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shul
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D001254:Astrocytoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D018450:Disease Progression; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D011379:Prognosis; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen