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Adenoid cystic carcinoma: A study of nucleolar organizer regions (AgNOR) counts and their relation to prognosis
Author(s) -
Fonseca Isabel,
Soares Jorge
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
the journal of pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.964
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1096-9896
pISSN - 0022-3417
DOI - 10.1002/path.1711690213
Subject(s) - adenoid cystic carcinoma , salivary gland , pathology , adenoid , nucleolus organizer region , carcinoma , medicine , significant difference , nucleus , nucleolus , psychiatry
We studied the AgNOR counts in 30 cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma from salivary glands ( n = 18) and non‐salivary sites ( n =12) in an attempt to correlate them with the evolution of the disease. AgNOR counts per nucleus varied between 1·96 and 6·12 (mean value 4·2 ± 0·99) as compared with 1·21 ± 1·4 in normal salivary tissue. There was no significant difference between cases that had an unfavourable clinical outcome (recurrence, metastases, and/or died of the disease) and cases without disease complications (4·31 vs. 4·03 AgNORs per nucleus). No difference was found between tumours located at salivary and non‐salivary sites or between major and minor salivary glands. AgNOR counts also did not correlate with the grade of differentiation of the neoplasms. In adenoid cystic carcinoma, AgNOR counts do not seem to be a prognostic indicator, in contrast to the usefulness of this method in other tumour types.