Evaluation of agnor staining in differentiation between borderline mucinous and serous ovarian tumors from benign and malignant-counterparts

Abstract EN

Background : Differentiation between borderline serous and mucinous ovarian tumors from benign and malignant counterparts is occasionally difficult or impossible by the use of routine H and E histopathology staining.

In this study differentiation capacity of Argyrophilic Nucleolar Organizer Region (AgNOR) staining was evaluated concerning these tumors.

Material and Method : For this purpose two AgNOR counts were used.

The first was mAgNOR (mean number of AgNOR per nucleus) that reflects ploidy and the second pAgNOR (percentage of nuclei with greater than or equal to five AgNORs per nucleus) that correlates with proliferative activity.

Forty-six serous ovarian tumors (15 benign, 13 borderline and 18 malignant lesions) and 36 mucinous ovarian tumors (15 benign, 12 borderline and 9 malignant lesions) were selected and the AgNOR and H and E staining carried out.

For each tumor 100 cells were randomly examined for nuclear AgNORs.

Results : A stepwise significant increase in pAgNORs and mAgNORs from benign to borderline and malignant serous and mucinous ovarian tumors were found (P < 0.001)except for two overlaps between pAgNORs of benign and borderline mucinous tumors.

Conclusion : This study concluded that the AgNOR counting is a valuable diagnostic criterion for differentiation between borderline serous and mucinous ovarian tumors from benign and malignant counterparts.