Nucleolar organizer regions and post-operative survival in glioblastoma multiforme

Counts of argyrophil nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) have been proposed as a method of assessing tumour growth rate. AgNOR counts have been shown to correlate with histological grade in glial and some non-glial tumours but few studies have included data relating to clinical outcome. We have examined the relationship between tumour AgNOR counts and postoperative survival in a retrospective study of 54 patients with glioblastoma multiforme. The mean number of AgNORs per nucleus varied from 1.7 to 10.8 in biopsies from different patients and correlated with mitotic rate (P less than 0.01) but not with post-operative survival, which ranged from 2 days to 54 months with four patients still alive. AgNOR counts were inversely related to patient age (P less than 0.01) and older patients tended to survive for shorter periods (P less than 0.05). Although AgNOR counts are related to the rate of tumour cell division, they are not useful for predicting the post-operative survival of patients with glioblastoma multiforme.