Prognostic value of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region (AgNOR) staining in feline intestinal lymphoma

Limited information is available on prognostic factors for cars with lympho ma. The quantity of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region (AgNOR) protein s can be used as a measurement of cellular proliferative activity. To deter mine if AgNORs were of prognostic value for feline intestinal lymphoma, the silver staining technique was performed on paraffin-embedded sections of 3 1 cases. Mean number of AgNORs per nucleus ranged from 1.02 to 4.32. Twenty -four (78%) cats had small AgNORs and 7 (22%) had large AgNORs. All eats we re treated identically with a combination chemotherapy protocol. Response t o chemotherapy was 87%. Median remission duration and survival times were 1 20 days and 201 days, respectively. No significant correlation was found be tween mean number of AgNORs per nucleus or AgNOR size and remission rate, r emission duration, or survival time. This study indicates that AgNOR staini ng is not a useful prognostic factor for cats with intestinal lymphoma.