Prognostic significance of mean nuclear volume in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the correlation of stereologically estimated mean nuclear volume of tumor cells with other clinicopathologic prognostic features and survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.


METHODS
The study included 27 patients with primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. A stereologic method proposed by Gundersen et al was used for the estimation of mean nuclear volume in hematoxylin and eosin-stained histologic sections of each case. Mean nuclear volume values were compared statistically with histopathologic prognostic feature groups and survival.


RESULTS
The mean nuclear volume values of tumor cells ranged from 296.83 to 982.79 microns 3 (mean, 633.906 +/- 212.310). Higher values of mean nuclear volume were significantly related to advanced tumor stage and the presence of distant metastasis (Kruskal-Wallis, P = .036; Mann-Whitney U, P = .020). In contrast, nodal stage, tumor grade, perineural invasion, lymphatic and blood vessel invasion, and size of tumor showed no statistical relation to mean nuclear volume of tumor cells. Mean nuclear volume was found to be a significant predictor of survival in univariate analysis (P = .016).


CONCLUSIONS
Estimation of mean nuclear volume may help in predicting the extent of disease and clinical behavior in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
Ozkal
Sermin
S
Department of Pathology, Dokuz Eylül University, School of Medicine, Inciralti, 35340, Izmir, Turkey. sermin.ozkal@deu.edu.tr
Sagol
Ozgül
O
Karademir
Sedat
S
Coker
Ahmet
A
Astarcioglu
Hüseyin
H
Küpelioglu
Ali
A
Astarcioglu
Ibrahim
I
Topalak
Omer
O
Göktay
Yigit
Y
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies