Objective-Method: Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) immunohistochemical expression and flow cytometric estimation of DNA ploidy were used in this study in order to estimate the proliferation tendency and biological aggressiveness in 68 colorectal adenomas.

Resuts: DNA aneuploidy and increased PCNA scores in the above mentioned adenomas tended to correlate positively with the size of each tumor and the degree of dysplasia, but not with the histologic type. The mean PCNA score for adenomas was 38% with a considerably wide expression range. In dysplastic areas of adenomas with malignant transformation the highest PCNA scores were focally observed.

Conclusion: The comparative assessment of the above parameters might be of considerable importance in the study of the proliferation activity of benign colorectal neoplasia.

Key words: PCNA, DNA ploidy, colorectal adenomas.

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