Abstract
The prognostic significance of AgNOR proteins in stage II-III rectal cancers treated with chemoradiotherapy was evaluated. Silver staining was applied to the 3μm sections of parafin blocked tissues from 30 rectal cancer patients who received 5-FU based chemoradiotherapy from May 2003 to June 2006. The microscopic displays of the cells were transferred into the computer via a video camera. AgNOR area (nucleolus organizer region area) and nucleus area values were determined as a nucleolus organizer regions area/total nucleus area (NORa/ TNa). The mean NORa/TNa value was found to be 9.02±3.68. The overall survival and disease free survival in the high NORa/TNa (>9.02) patients were 52.2 months and 39.4 months respectively, as compared to 100.7 months and 98.4 months in the low NORa/TNa (<9.02) cases. (p<0.001 and p<0.001 respectively). In addition, the prognosis in the high NORa/TNa patients was worse than low NORa/TNa patients (p<0.05). In terms of overall survival and disease-free survival, a statistically significant negative correlation was found with the value of NORa/TNa in the correlations tests. Cox regression analyses demostrated that overall survival and disease-free survival were associated with lymph node status (negative or positive) and the NORa/TNa value. We suggest that two-dimensional AgNOR evaluation may be a safe and usable parameter for prognosis and an indicator of cell proliferation instead of AgNOR dots.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer is a very common malignant tumor with about 1.2 million new cases and 600000 deaths worldwide each year (Raskov et al, 2014)
We suggest that two-dimensional AgNOR evaluation may be a safe and usable parameter for prognosis and an indicator of cell proliferation instead of AgNOR dots
There was a little study related to morphometric analysis of AgNOR proteins in the patients with rectal cancer in literature. In this current study we aim to reveal the prognostic importance of AgNOR proteins on the patients with stage II-III rectal cancer who were treated with chemoradiotherapy
Summary
Colorectal cancer is a very common malignant tumor with about 1.2 million new cases and 600000 deaths worldwide each year (Raskov et al, 2014). The acidic proteins present in the NORs can be stained by using AgNOR or the silver staining technique and they are called AgNOR proteins
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