Lead article: The prognostic significance of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (pcna) in laryngeal cancer.

Squamous cell carcinoma arising from upper aerodigestive tract carries with it a significant morbidity and mortality and, over the last few decades, its incidence has steadily increased. The management of patients requires thorough investigation to determine the local, regional, and distant extent of the disease, and treatment options include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or combinations of these.Despite the large number of therapeutic and hsitopathologic studies in print, there is currently no morphologic or cytologic feature available which consistenly predicts outcome in patients with laryngeal carcinoma. The use of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a newly available marker of a cell's proliferative activity ( S-phase fraction), was evaluated in 25 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx. PCNA scores differed, statistically significantly as far as the localization of the lesion, pathological grade, clinical stage, presence of lymph node metastases and prognosis of the patients were concerned.These data suggest that PCNA is an indicator of the malignant potential of the larynx. PCNA can be used in decision making for treatment and assessing prognosis in carcinoma of the larynx.