AgNOR counts and their combination with flow cytometric analyses and clinical parameters as a prognostic indicator in breast carcinoma.

Silver binding nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) were counted in tissue sections and were shown to assist in the distinction between benign and malignant breast lesions. The mean AgNOR counts in fibroadenomas were 1.05 +/- 0.85 (n = 18), in lobular carcinoma 3.55 +/- 0.56 (n = 35), and in intraductal carcinoma 4.83 +/- 1.20 (n = 45). AgNOR counting may provide information on breast cancer prognosis supplementary to that obtained with other methods such as flow cytometric analysis. The AgNOR values in carcinomas were also compared with ploidy and S-phase fractions (S) by flow cytometry. More than 75% of the total cancers with counts above 3 dots per nuclear profile contained aneuploid cells, whereas 20% with counts below 3 contained diploid cells (P < 0.05). Similar trends were noticed with regard to S-phase fractions, which were 45% +/- 12.5 and 14% +/- 4.5, respectively, for the two groups (P < 0.05). AgNOR counting, flow cytometry and clinical parameters may provide complementary information on breast cancer prognosis.