STEREOLOGICAL ESTIMATES OF THE NUCLEAR CYTOPLASMIC RATIO AND STAR VOLUME ON FIBEROPTIC BIOPSIES ARE OF PROGNOSTIC VALUE FOR SURVIVAL IN A PRELIMINARY-STUDY OF ADVANCED SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMA OF THE LUNG/

Aims: This study evaluated the role of morphometric and clinical param eters in establishing the prognosis of patients submitted to radiother apy for advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. Methods and Resu lts: Morphometric studies were performed by point counting techniques. Forty patients were included in this study Group I patients (n = 22) were those with survival equal to or less than 6 months: group 2 (n = 10) patients had a survival of 7 to 12 months; and group 3 (n = 8) inc luded patients with survival greater than 12 months. To characterize t hese three groups of patients, models combining categorical and contin uous variables were constructed by means of discriminant analysis, Wei ght loss, histological grader nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio and star volum e of the nuclei were selected during the backward procedure as relevan t variables to characterize the three groups of patients, The overall sensitivity of the model was 90%, Conclusions: Our results indicate th at histopathological data may help to predict prognosis in patients wi th advanced squamous cell lung carcinoma, and encourage the use of mor phometric procedures in histopathological analysis of this type of lun g tumour.