Evaluations of p53 immunoreactivity, nucleolar organizer regions, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen in non-small cell lung carcinoma

We examined p53 protein expression, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCN A), and argyrophilic nuclear organizer regions (AgNOR), in 102 patients wit h surgically-treated nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). p53 positive cases with DO-I were defined when more than 10% of the tumor cell nuclei were sta ined. Mean AgNOR count and PCNA LI were 2.80 and 40.7 and there were no sig nificant differences of AgNOR count and PCNA LI between p53 positive and ne gative cases, We assessed the relationship between the p53 immunoreactivity and various clinical or pathological parameters. p53 positive rate of stag e III disease (46.3%) was significantly higher than that of stage TI diseas e (28.6%). The p53 positive rate of squamous cell carcinoma (42.1%) tended to be higher than that of adenocarcinoma (33.9%). In the survival curves of patients with NSCLC according to the p53 immunoreactivity, there was no si gnificant difference between p53 positive and negative cases. Eight potenti al prognostic parameters (p53 immunoreactivity, AgNOR corrnt, PCNA LI, sex, age, year of operation histology and stage) were also estimated using univ ariate and multivariate analysis. In univariate analysis, PCNA LI and AgNOR count, and stage were significantly related to shortened survival. In mult ivariate analysis, PCNA LI, Age, and stage were independently associated wi th shortened survival of NSCLC patients. PCNA staining may be more useful t han p53 and AgNOR staining in assessing the aggressiveness of surgically-tr eated NSCLC, although the most useful clinical prognostic parameter should be achieved by the combined analysis of several prognostic indicators.