DIAGNOSTIC RELEVANCE OF AgNOR IN OVARIAN SEROUS BORDERLINE TUMORS

Abstract

Nucleolar organizer regions are loops a/nuclear DNA related to ribosomal DNA, and their number in cells is believed to indicate cellular proliferative activity. Using_a silver staining methodto visualize thesestructures inparaffin embeddedtissue sections, an attempt was made to determine ifthese AgNOR counts could be used as a diagnostic toolfor serous borderline tumors of the ovary. Ten cases in each group a/benign, borderlineand malignantserous ovarian tumorswereselectedand themean numberofAgNORwas determined in all cases. A progressive increase in mean AgNORvalues was naedfrom the benign l oup towards the borderlinegroup and further to the carcinomagrOUPi the differences between the means in. each gr~Uwere statistically significant However, there was a high ee of overlap between the values ofthe borderline and . ant groups. Theseresults indicatethat AgNORcountsmaynot
be very useful as a diagnostic tool in an individual case.