Studies on argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) in a spontaneous mammary gland ductal carcinoma of a captive rhesus monkey.

A spontaneous mammary gland ductal carcinoma was diagnosed in a 13-year-old female captive rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). The expression of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) was studied to investigate the correlation between the histologic invasiveness and cell proliferation activity assay for predicting the biologic behavior of this tumor type. The results of this study show that the AgNOR size in tumor cells reflect the degree of malignancy when compared with the pattern of peripheral blood lymphocytes of the same individual.