DNA CONTENT AND THE PROLIFERATION MARKER KI-67 AS PROGNOSTIC INDICATORS IN RENAL-CELL CARCINOMA

Patients suffering from renal cell carcinoma have a generally poor pro gnosis. Even cases that are clinically in comparable stages can, howev er, take quite different courses. The basic prognostic factors, histol ogical grade and TNM stage do not do justice to the heterogeneous biol ogical behavior of this tumor entity. In this study, the possible prog nostic indicators, DNA content and proliferation rate, assessed with K i-67, were compared with the histological grade and the TNM stage. Tho ugh there was no correlation between the proliferation rate (Ki-67) an d the two, there was a significant correlation between DNA content and both histological grade and TNM stage.