대한대장항문학회

Nucleolar organizer regions(NORs) are argyrophilic and have a loops of DNA that tran<br>scribes to ribosomal RNA by RNA Polymerase I and are involved in formation of<br>nucleolus. They are used in measuring proliferative activity of cells. Mean AgNORs<br>count is increased or large and NORs are irregular in shape in malignant tumors. To<br>examine the relationship of AgNORs to the survival rate of the patients with invasive<br>colorectal adenocarcinoma, we counted mean AgNORs in 200 tumor cells and mean<br>AgNORs#(mean AgNORs in counting AgNORs of the upper 40 nuclei after sorting<br>AgNORs counts of 200 cell nuclei in descending order) after AgNOR staining using 45<br>cases of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue surgically excised at Kang-Dong<br>Sacred heart hospital.<br>The survival rates were not related to age, sex, locations, differentiation, mAgNORs<br>and mAgNORs# except Dukes'stages. There were only statistical significances in<br>AgNORs# between high and low age group(p=0.0001), and between colon and<br>rectum(p=0.005).<br>But it is known that there could be different results according to staining time,<br>fixation and preservation of tissues, counting methods in measuring AgNORs. There<br>might be clinical usefulness of AgNOR if more cases are examined together with better<br>tissue processing and staining methods.<br>