TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL BRONCHOPULMONARY CARCINOID-TUMORS - A CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL AND KI-67-LABELING STUDY

Expression of a proliferating antigen by KI-67 immunohistochemistry wa s analyzed with a SAMBA 2005 computer-assisted image processor (Traite ment de l'Information for des Techniques Nouvelles, Grenoble, France) in 47 surgically resected bronchopulmonary carcinoids embedded in para ffin. The clinicopathologic characteristics and KI-67 labeling, expres sed in percentage of stained nuclear surface relative to the total nuc lear surface, of 31 typical carcinoids and 16 atypical carcinoids were compared and assessed with respect to patient survival. The prolifera tion status was significantly higher in histologically atypical than i n typical carcinoids. Moreover, using a 4% cutoff, we observed a signi ficant difference for the 4-year overall survival rate. Semiquantitati ve analysis of the proliferation index by KI-67 immunostaining seemed to be an effective means of identifying high risk subsets among patien ts with histologically atypical carcinoids and for whom adjuvant chemo therapy could be proposed. Copyright (C) 1995 by W.B. Saunders Company