Prognostic importance of the nucleolar organizer region score in ovarian epithelial tumors.

Objective: The score of the silver-stained nucleolar organizer region (AgNOR) is frequently found to be high in malignant tumors. We studied AgNOR in ovarian epithelial tumors diagnosed in our hospital between 1993 and 1998.
Materials and Method: In our study 67 ovarian epithelial tumors (18 cystadenoma, 16 borderline type, 34 cystadenocarcinoma) were stained using the method previously described by Crocker. One-way ANOVA and logistic regression tests were used to find the statistical relationship between grade, recurrence, mortality rates and AgNOR scores in tumors (p values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant).
Results: The mean AgNOR scores of 28 mucinous and 39 serous ovary tumors were calculated. The lowest AgNOR score of 1.33 was found in cystadenomas and the highest AgNOR score of 4.92 was found in serous and mucinous cystadenocarcinomas. In addition the relationship between mortality rate, recurrence and AgNOR score in carcinomas were studied.
Conclusion: AgNOR scores in carcinomas were found to be higher than adenomas, and the highest AgNOR score was found in grade-III carcinomas. This shows that the AgNOR score can be used as a prognostic index in malignancies.
(Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.)