Prognostic value of nucleolar organizer regions in urothelial carcinoma in relation to grading and staging

ABSTRACT

Using a silver staining technique, nucleolar organizer regions were identified in routinely processed paraffin sections of 40 cases of epithelial urinary bladder lesions. The technique shows argyrophilic NOR associated proteins [AgNORs], which are seen in nuclei as black dots. There was a significant difference between benign urothelial hyperplasia and carcinoma [t=5.301] as well as between the different grades of urothelial carcinoma; grade 1 and 2 [t=4.697] and grade 2 and 3 [t=5.717], where there was an inverse relationship between the number of AgNORs and degree of differentiation. There was no significant difference between in situ and grade 1 urothelial carcinoma. [t=0.323]