Clinicopathological correlation of cell proliferation, apoptosis and p53 in cerebellar pilocytic astrocytomas

We have analysed 78 cerebellar pilocytic astrocytomas to assess whether histopathology, cell proliferation, apoptosis rate, p53 immunoreactivity, or flow cytometry could predict their long‐term behaviour. Classic pilocytic/microcystic pattern was seen in 62 patients and 16 patients had mixed pattern with an additional non‐pilocytic glial component. The overall 5‐year survival was 93%, complete resection providing 100% survival. The four patients who died during the follow‐up were more than 14 years of age, their primary operation had been incomplete and three of them were mixed variants. In 15 cases the tumour recurred giving a recurrence‐free 5‐year survival of 77%. The proliferation indices were low: Ki‐67MIB‐1 (median 2.0%), PCNA (1.2%) and S‐phase fraction (4.4%). The Ki‐67MIB‐1‐labelling index was significantly higher in young patients, but did not differ between the classic and mixed variants. Twenty‐two per cent of the tumours were aneuploid with a significantly higher S‐phase fraction than in diploid tumours. p53 seems to act as ardian of the genome’ in pilocytic astrocytomas, because aberrant/increased expression of p53 and aneuploidy associated with enhanced apoptosis. Only patient age (P=0.01), radicality of the primary operation (P=0.0001) and histology (classic vs mixed, P=0.008) significantly correlated with survival. The poorer prognosis of the mixed variant suggests that this may represent a distinct entity. Although none of the novel parameters significantly predicted recurrence or survival, they indicate substantial biological variation among cerebellar pilocytic astrocytomas.