title: Reliability of quantitating proliferative cell nuclear antigen in epithelial ovarian tumors.
abstract: Sources of variability in quantitating proliferative cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) by image analysis were evaluated in paraffin sections of 18 ovarian tumors of low malignant potential (LMP) and grade 1 (G1) carcinomas. The correlation coefficient of reliability (R) was calculated to determine how reliable a single observation was for representing a "true" tumor value. Reliability of 61% was obtained when interobserver and intraobserver variability were assessed. Threshold settings for positive nuclear and antibody signals minimally affected the overall reliability. The reliability of a single block of tumor for representing true tumor value was R = 0.61. These sources of variability render this technique impractical for evaluating proliferative characteristics in LMP and G1 common epithelial ovarian tumors with PCNA staining.
authors.affiliation: Baystate Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Springfield, Massachusetts 01119.
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Donovan
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shiraki
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Pekow
authors.forename: C N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Otis
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D015588:Observer Variation; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen