Correlation Between DNA Amount In Cell with Tumor Progression

DNA ploidy is a prognostic factor in breast carcinoma and it is a parameter of aggressiveness that is correlate with long term survival. An Argyrophilic technique (AgNOR) to identify Nucleolar Organizer Region (NOR) associated with proteins together with immunohistochemical staining for Estrogen Receptors-Progesterone Receptors (ER-PR) were applied on formalin- fixed paraffin- embedded tissues from 70 blocks collected during the period 1999-2003 including: - 6 male patients and 97 females patients. The specimen includes 5 cases of Adenocarcinoma, 6 cases of Adenosis, 18 cases of Ductal Carcinoma, 8 cases of Mastitis, 8 cases of Fibroadenoma, 3 cases of Gynecomastia, 2 cases of Lobular carcinoma, 3 cases of Lactating Adenoma, 3 cases of Ductectasia, 2 cases of Tubular adenoma and 2 cases of Stage III A carcinoma. AgNOR appeared as small black dotes within the nuclei, and our study show that there is a spectrum of gradually increasing AgNOR indices from normal, benign to malignant cases. The higher score were recorded in Adenocarcinoma, tubular adenoma, ductal carcinoma, and lobular carcinoma. The distribution of AgNOR dots was different in benign and malignant breast cancer.