Je. Nishizawatakano et al., GALLBLADDER CANCER - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY AMONG CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES, AGNORS, AND DNA CONTENT-ANALYSIS, Digestive diseases and sciences, 41(5), 1996, pp. 840-847
A comparative study among clinicopathologic features, silver-stained n
ucleolar organizer region associated proteins (AgNORs), and DNA conten
t analysis in 76 patients with gallbladder cancer was performed. The A
gNOR count, AgNOR area, and the ratio of AgNOR area to nuclear area we
re significantly higher in patients with a low grade of histological d
ifferentiation and deep invasion into the gallbladder wall. Moreover,
these parameters were higher in cases with lymph node involvement and
distant metastases. DNA ploidy pattern and clinicopathologic features
showed no statistical significance. Our results demonstrate that AgNOR
parameters are useful indicators to evaluate the malignant behavior o
f gallbladder cancer. Furthermore, the AgNOR count together with the d
epth of the neoplastic invasion and lymph node metastases proved to be
independent prognostic factors for survival in patients with gallblad
der cancer.