Nucleolar organizer regions in laryngeal cancer.

The purpose of this study was to estimate the prognostic value of the AgNORs count per nucleus in laryngeal cancer. The sections of diagnostic, formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded specimens from 48 patients with T1-4 tumours were stained with silver nitrate for visualization of NORs (AgNORs). The correlation between AgNORs score and tumour clinicopathological features was estimated. The mean AgNOR number per nucleus was 2.73 +/- 0.87 (range 1.48-4.38). The AgNOR counts did not correlate with the stage of the disease, patient survival rate and N stage. A significant correlation between the mean AgNORs number and various stages of histological differentiation of carcinoma was observed (p < 0.05).