Expression of AgNORs in serous ovarian tumors

The nosological nature of the borderline ovarian tumor has been investigated by several methodological approaches. The aim of our research was to verify how the study of the nucleolar organizer regions (AgNOR) may offer its contribution on this subject. We studied 18 cases of ovarian serous tumours, respectively 6 benign, 6 borderline and 6 malignant. A separate calculation for clusters (> 1 mu) and total NORs was performed on fifty neoplastic cells chosen at random from every tumour. The findings recorded were the following: 1) the quantity and shape of clusters, dots and total NORs were significantly increasing from benign to borderline to malignant tumours; 2) the number of the dots and total NORs was higher in the case of borderline tumour stage III than in other cases limited to the ovary; 3) the clusters of the poorly differentiated carcinomas were much less numerous than the clusters of those well differentiated; instead the dots and the total NORs were more numerous. These data suggest a correlation between the number of the NORs and the biological activity of the tumours. The borderline serous tumours of the ovary showed a median position between benign and malignant tumours.