Ra. Frankenthaler et al., HIGH CORRELATION WITH SURVIVAL OF PROLIFERATING CELL NUCLEAR ANTIGEN EXPRESSION IN MUCOEPIDERMOID CARCINOMA OF THE PAROTID-GLAND, Otolaryngology and head and neck surgery, 111(4), 1994, pp. 460-466
We tested the hypothesis that proliferating cell nuclear antigen can p
redict survival in patients with mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Formalin-fi
xed, paraffin-embedded, tissue resected specimens from 43 patients wit
h no prior treatment for mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the parotid gland
were immunostained with the PC10 monoclonal antibody to proliferating
cell nuclear antigen with the peroxidase/antiperoxidase method. Proli
ferating cell nuclear antigen levels were defined as the number of nuc
lei with strong immunostaining divided by the total cell count and wer
e expressed as percentages. Both univariate and multivariate analyses
were performed on 12 additional prognostic variables to determine the
relative proliferating cell nuclear antigen level to predict survival.
The median proliferating cell nuclear antigen level was 7. Five perce
nt of patients with proliferating cell nuclear antigen levels less tha
n 7 died of their disease compared with 48% of those with proliferatin
g cell nuclear antigen levels of 7 or more. Multivariate analysis indi
cates proliferating cell nuclear antigen to be the most important para
meter in predicting survival. Thus the measurement of proliferating ce
ll nuclear antigen is a useful predictor of survival for patients with
mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the parotid gland.