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[Proliferation rate of small cell lung carcinoma. A cytomorphometric parameter with prognostic significance]
G Kayser1, I Gunzenhäuser, H D Becker
1Abteilung Pathologie, Thoraxklinik, Amalienstrasse 5, 69126 Heidelberg. klkayser@lung.de
Aim:
Evaluation of prognosis-associated parameters in patients with small cell lung carcinoma.
Material And Methods:
Biopsies of 46 patients suffering from a non-treated small cell lung carcinoma were stained with Feulgen and immunohistochemically with Ki-67 antibody. The integrated optical density (IOD) and proliferation rate was measured by syntactic structure analysis and correlated with survival.
Results:
About 85% of patients had a smoking history (46 pack years on average). The median survival time was 13.5 months, the proliferation rate (Ki-67 positive tumor cell nuclei) 68.2% and S-phase percentage 9.2%. Ot average, 25 proliferating tumor cell nuclei formed clusters (mean diameter 95 microns). The prognosis was associated with the proliferation rate (p < 0.04), tumor stage (stage I versus lib, p < 0.05), at threshold limits with S-phase rate (p < 0.07) and serum levels of LDH and NSE (p < 0.06 and p < 0.07 respectively).
Conclusions:
Immune histochemical determination of the Ki-67 protein is a useful method to estimate the prognosis of patients with small cell lung carcinoma.