INTRODUCTION:
Occurrence of apoptosis and expression of proliferative markers are powerful tools to establish a prognosis in the follow-up of cancer.
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate the growth fraction in papillomas and laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas with three degrees of differentiation through apoptosis and the expression of nucleolus organizer regions.
METHODS:
Retrospective study from which paraffin material was submitted to microtomy and hematoxylin-eosin and silver staining. Stained slides were used to quantify the apoptotic index and the number of nucleolus organizer regions by morphometry.
RESULTS:
Apoptosis was significantly more frequent in well differentiated carcinomas and in papillomas, and a higher growth fraction of expressed nucleolus organizer regions and cells that expressed a greater than average number of nucleolus organizer regions were more frequently noted in undifferentiated carcinomas.
CONCLUSIONS:
Thus, it was possible to verify that a high apoptotic index was associated with a lower chance of tumor differentiation in carcinomas, while a greater number of total nucleolus organizer regions, cells expressing nucleolus organizer regions above average and a higher growth fraction were associated with greater likelihood of abnormal cell proliferation and increased tumor differentiation.
Apoptosis; Larynx; Squamous cell carcinoma; Nucleolus organizer region; Papilloma