Prognostic Significance of Two Dimensional AgNOR Evaluation in Local Advanced Rectal Cancer Treated with Chemoradiotherapy

• Published in: Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP Vol. 16; no. 18; p. 8155
• Main Authors: Gundog, Mete, Yildiz, Oguz G, Imamoglu, Nalan, Aslan, Dicle, Aytekin, Aynur, Soyuer, Isin, Soyuer, Serdar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thailand 2015
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma - pathology; Adenocarcinoma - therapy; Adenocarcinoma - ultrastructure; Adult; Aged; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols - therapeutic use; Cell Nucleus - pathology; Cell Nucleus - ultrastructure; Chemoradiotherapy; Combined Modality Therapy; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Grading; Neoplasm Invasiveness; Neoplasm Staging; Nucleolus Organizer Region - pathology; Nucleolus Organizer Region - ultrastructure; Prognosis; Silver Staining; Stomach Neoplasms - pathology; Stomach Neoplasms - therapy; Stomach Neoplasms - ultrastructure; Survival Rate
• ISSN: 2476-762X

The prognostic significance of AgNOR proteins in stage II-III rectal cancers treated with chemoradiotherapy was evaluated. Silver staining was applied to the 3μm sections of parafin blocked tissues from 30 rectal cancer patients who received 5-FU based chemoradiotherapy from May 2003 to June 2006. The microscopic displays of the cells were transferred into the computer via a video camera. AgNOR area (nucleolus organizer region area) and nucleus area values were determined as a nucleolus organizer regions area/total nucleus area (NORa/ TNa). The mean NORa/TNa value was found to be 9.02±3.68. The overall survival and disease free survival in the high NORa/TNa (>9.02) patients were 52.2 months and 39.4 months respectively, as compared to 100.7 months and 98.4 months in the low NORa/TNa (<9.02) cases. (p<0.001 and p<0.001 respectively). In addition, the prognosis in the high NORa/TNa patients was worse than low NORa/TNa patients (p<0.05). In terms of overall survival and disease-free survival, a statistically significant negative correlation was found with the value of NORa/TNa in the correlations tests. Cox regression analyses demostrated that overall survival and disease-free survival were associated with lymph node status (negative or positive) and the NORa/TNa value. We suggest that two-dimensional AgNOR evaluation may be a safe and usable parameter for prognosis and an indicator of cell proliferation instead of AgNOR dots.