Proliferative activity of glial neoplasms of the brain

: The aim of the study including 89 brain gliomas was to determine their proliferative activity assayed with immunohistochemical methods (PCNA and Ki-67) and with the method of AgNORs, as well as to evaluate the correlation between the proliferative activity and features of histological malignancy. The study reveals that the estimation of PCNA, Ki-67 and AgNORs are effective methods for the determination of the proliferative activity of brain gliomas. Statistically significant differences were noted in the proliferative PCNA, Ki-67 and AgNORs between groups of gliomas with lower and higher malignancy, which indicated a distinct correlation between histological malignancy of the tumours and their proliferative activity. High values of PCNA and Ki-67 (> 40%) and AgNORs (> 15) were found to considerably deteriorate prognosis in brain gliomas.