SILVER STAINED NUCLEOLAR ORGANIZER REGION COUNT (AGNOR COUNT) – VERY USEFUL TOOL IN BREAST LESIONS

Abstract

Introduction: Accurate histopathological typing, grading and staging of a tumour is of proven value in clinical management as well as prognostic outcome of cancer patients. But many times histopathological assessment correlates poorly with clinical outcome. These limitations have motivated development of new technique so as to improve accuracy and reproducibility of prognostication.

Method: One of the newer techniques is “Silver stained nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs)’which is cheap, simple used to assess its role in histopathological diagnosis and prognosis of disease of breast lesion cases.

Results: There is high AgNOR count in malignant breast tumours as compared to benign lesions. Characteristic morphological changes are observed in benign and malignant lesions. Morphological variation can also be used as diagnostic as well as prognostic parameter.

Conclusion: The newly invented simple technique of AgNOR staining and its proven predictability may become a trustworthy milestone.