Abstract
Objective: We investigated the application of AgNOR (silver-binding nucleolar organizer region) staining for the differential diagnosis of ovarian cancer cells and reactive mesothelia in ascitic fluid.
Study Design: Eleven cases of ovarian adenocarcinomas (6 with serous cystadenocarcinomas, 4 with clear cell adenocarcinomas, and one with mucinous cystadenocarcinoma) and 11 female patients with benign ascites were evaluated by two AgNOR counting methods.: 1) the mean number of AgNORs per nucleus (m-AgNOR) and 2) the percentages of nuclei with≥2, ≥3, ≥4, and≥5 AgNORs (p-AgNOR≥ 2, 3, 4, 5, respectively).
Results: Both m-AgNOR and p-AgNOR≥2-5 were significantly larger in ovarian adenocarcinoma cells than in reactive mesothelial cells. The m-AgNOR in ovarian cancer cells in the ascitic fluid specimens tended to be correlated with that in the pathological tumor tissue.
Conclusion: The results suggest that the AgNOR staining technique is useful for the differential diagnosis of ovarian adenocarcinoma cells and reactive mesothelial cells in ascitic fluid cytology.
A value of p-AgNOR> 4 or 5 is more convenient and practical for evaluating the number of AgNORs
