Two-dimensional agnor evaluation as a prognostic variable in urinary bladder carcinoma:: A different approach via total agnor area/nucleus area per cell

Traditional criterions are not sufficient to predict accurately the recurrence of transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the AgNORs via total AgNOR area/nucleus area (TAA/NA) for each cell as a prognostic parameter, in TCC of urinary bladder. Tumor tissues of 20 consecutive cases of male bladder cancer patients were divided into two groups as middle differentiated (LG) and high grade (HG). The extra-tumoral tissue (ETT) samples of 10 males served as control group. A second control group (HQ consisted of five healthy and normal bladder tissue samples. The 3 mu m of sections from each paraffin embedded tumoral, extra-tumoral and normal tissue samples served as patient and control groups. After deparaffinization and rehydratation steps, silver (AgNO3) staining of nucleolar organizer regions- associated proteins (AgNORs) was performed. Instead of Giemsa stain, we used Hematoxylin for contra staining. The images of the 100 analyzable nuclei from each tissue sample, transferred by means of a video camera and video capture card from microscope and recorded onto a computer. Software was prepared in Delphi language for analysis. Mean (E+02) TAA/NA values of HC, ETT, LG and HG groups were 6.97 + 2.80, 5.70 + 1.82, 7.80 + 3.22 and 9.24 + 3.88, respectively. Statistical comparisons have shown significant differences between all groups.In conclusion, mean TAA/NA per cell has a potential to be a prognostic parameter. Therefore, further evaluation of big patient series will be useful. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.