Evaluation of Neuroendocrine and Proliferative Markers in Prostatic Adenocarcinomas

Background: certain marker studies have practical importancein the biology of prostate cancer. the purpose of thisstudy was to determine whether the quantification of certainneuroendocrine and proliferative markers obtained duringtransurethral resection or prostatectomy, would help in theprognostic evaluation of prostatic adenocarcinomas.methods: the present study was performed on samplesobtained from two groups of patients with acinar type prostaticadenocarcinoma. each group comprised 21 patients with gleasonscores :0:.7 (high-grade) and gleason scores (less than)6 (low-grade).tumors with their surrounding benign tissues were stained withki67 and chromogranin a (cha), and their cell proliferation andneuroendocrine differentiation were examined.results: the mean number of neuroendocrine cells (cha positivecells) in high grade tumors was 21% and that of low gradewas less than one percent (p(less than)o.ooi). whereas, the mean proliferativeindex determined by ki67 positive cells was 49% in highgrade tumors as compared to less than 4% in low grade tumors(p(less than)o.ool). no significant difference was found between themean percentages of cha cells in the non-tumoral tissues ofhigh grade (2.7%) and low grade (1.9%). the mean proliferativeindex in the non-tumoral tissues of high grade (2.8%) wassignificantly higher (p(less than)o.oo i) than of low grade tumors (1.4%).conclusion: the usage of proliferative index seems to be an acceptablediagnostic index for the determination of tumor grading.