CELL-PROLIFERATION INDEXES - A BIOMARKER IN SOLID TUMORS

Clinical studies have shown that carcinogenesis is linked to the devel opment of proliferative abnormalities, Proliferative activity has been found to have prognostic significance in a variety of human tumors, B ecause proliferative abnormalities can precede the occurrence of morph ological abnormalities, their measurement could also serve as useful b iomarkers for chemoprevention trials, The variety of techniques for me asuring cell proliferation in routine sections include mitosis countin g, AgNORs, DNA precursor uptake (bromodeoxyuridine), and immunohistoch emical detection of cell cycle proteins (PCNA, Ki-67/MIB-1), It is ess ential that the virtues and limitations of these methods be examined t o ensure collection of meaningful clinical data.