Biological Evaluation of Biopsies from Adult Cerebral Astrocytomas: Cell-growth/Cell-suicide Ratios and their Relationship to Patient Survival

In adult cerebral astrocytomas, the more anaplasia that is present, the more malignancy that occurs. Cell proliferation antigen staining (MIB-1) and DNA labeling methods for apoptosis using paraffin sections from 39 cases were compared with histopathological grading systems for predicting patient su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology 1998-08, Vol.57 (8), p.746-757
Main Author: Rhodes, Roy H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age Distribution
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Apoptosis
Astrocytoma - pathology
Astrocytomas
Biological and medical sciences
Biopsy
Brain Neoplasms - pathology
Brain tumors
Cell Division - physiology
Cell Survival - physiology
Child
Comparative analysis
Evaluation Studies as Topic
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Medical research
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Neurology
Patient outcomes
Prognosis
Reproducibility of Results
Suicide
Survival Rate
Tumors of the nervous system. Phacomatoses
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Summary:In adult cerebral astrocytomas, the more anaplasia that is present, the more malignancy that occurs. Cell proliferation antigen staining (MIB-1) and DNA labeling methods for apoptosis using paraffin sections from 39 cases were compared with histopathological grading systems for predicting patient survival. Cases were selected to include those with expected or unexpected survival time for grade. Computer-assisted image analysis data were used to construct proliferation-apoptosis indices to compare with tumor grade and patient survival. Cases with less proliferation than apoptosis usually had a favorable outcome regardless of tumor grade, with some unexpectedly long survivals among high-grade cases. Cases with more proliferation than apoptosis had a poor outcome, including most patients with high-grade astrocytomas and a few patients whose tumors were low grade but whose indices were high. The in situ tailing method for apoptosis revealed many nuclei with low levels of DNA strand breaks, particularly in older, nonsurviving patients. Tumor growth indices may be useful for prognosis and they may also become adjunctive guides for therapy by indicating rates of tumor growth and spontaneous apoptosis that therapy can affect. Perhaps the apoptotic mechanism cannot be completed spontaneously or boosted as easily by conventional therapy as patients age.
ISSN:0022-3069
1554-6578
DOI:10.1097/00005072-199808000-00004