STANDARDIZED AGNOR ANALYSIS OF THE INVASIVE TUMOR FRONT IN ORAL SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMAS

In the last decade, silver staining of nucleolar organizer region-asso ciated proteins (AgNORs) has been widely used in tumour pathology both for diagnostic and for prognostic purposes, However, a reliable and r eproducible assessment of these proteins on routinely processed archiv al tissues has only become possible since the recent introduction of s tandardized staining method and computer-aided morphometric analysis. In the present study, the AgNOR content at the invasive front of 80 sq uamous cell carcinomas of the floor of the mouth/tongue was investigat ed using this novel approach, with regard to prognosis and a variety o f clinico-pathological parameters, All standardized AgNOR parameters [ mean of AgNOR number, mean of AgNOR area, coefficients of variation (C V) of both AgNOR number and area] were statistically significantly ass ociated with the clinical course, The strongest correlation was found for the AgNOR-area univariate analysis (P=0.006). In multivariate anal ysis, the mean of AgNOR number could independently predict both overal l (P=0.01) and disease-free survival (P=0.001). It is concluded that s tandardized staining and computer-aided analysis of AgNORs are prerequ isites for an objective and reproducible AgNOR assessment, which has p otential as a supplementary diagnostic and prognostic tool in oral can cer, (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.