Nucleolar organizer region count and subjective AgNOR pattern assessment (SAPA) score in skin tumors.

Abstract

To study the argyrophilic nucleolar organizer region (AgNOR) count and subjective AgNOR pattern assessment (SAPA) score in cytologic and histologic specimens of various skin tumors. The study group consisted of 37 patients (14 benign and 23 malignant) of various skin tumors. In all cases, cytology by fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), and histological specimens were studied by conventional staining and silver staining for AgNOR. The mean count in benign tumors in cytologic specimens was 2.08 +/- 0.01, compared with 5.50 +/- 1.12 in malignant tumors (P<0.001). In histologic specimens, mean count was 2.13 +/- 0.51 in benign, compared with 5.38 +/- 1.10 in malignant tumors (P<0.001). The SAPA score in benign tumors (P<0.001) in cytologic specimens, was 6.07 +/- 0.83, compared with 10.65 +/- 1.27 in malignant tumors, and in histology, it was 6.07 +/- 0.87 in benign, compared with 10.83 +/- 1.15 in malignant tumors (P < 0.001). Melanoma showed the higher AgNOR count compared with squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma. The parameters were statistically significant between the grade of tumor in squamous cell carcinoma and the positivity of lymph nodes as demonstrated by SAPA score. No correlation was found between the clinical stage and Clark level of melanoma. Although, AgNOR count and SAPA score showed similar results, the indicators of validity were higher in SAPA than AgNOR count. Although, AgNOR count and SAPA score gave similar results, but the indicators of validity were higher in SAPA score than AgNOR count.