Argyrophilic proteins of nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) in fallopian tube carcinomas

Forty-four patients diagnosed with primary cancer of the fallopian tube (PFTC) were analyzed with regard to AgNORs expression, morphological classification, clinical stage and survival rate. Twenty-seven patients were FIGO stage I, 7 FIGO II and 10 FIGO III. Histological classification of PFTC revealed 18 endometrioid types, 9 serous, 7 undifferentiated, 6 urothelial, 2 clear cell and 2 another type of (intestinal, squamous cell) cancer. Histological grading revealed 11 G1, 16 G2 and 17 G3 tumors. The number of AgNORs per nucleus ranged from 1 to 7, mean 2.54+/-0.77. The smallest number of silver stained NORs was observed in the endometrioid type (mean 2.32+/-0.62) and the biggest number of AgNORs in undifferentiated carcinoma (mean 3.05+/-0.82). There was no correlation between number of AgNORs and AgNOR area/nuclear area ratio and survival (p=0.71), histological stage or histological type of PFTC. There was a correlation between the number of AgNORs among tumors with histological grade 1 and grade 3 (p=0.023), and grade 2 and grade 3 (p=0.045). However, there was no correlation between AgNOR number and survival rate in these groups.