A Study of Microvessel Density, P53, Ki67, and DNA Flowcytometry in Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis of Squamous Cell Cancer in Head and Neck / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Lymph node metastasis is believed to be the single most important prognostic factor in the head and neck squamous cell cancer. To identify potential biological parameters for predicting cervical lymph node metastasis, we evaluated the relationship between cervical nodal status and several parameters, such as microvessel density, p53, Ki67, and DNA ploidy, and compared it with the conventional clinical parameters including histologic grade of the tumors. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This study group included 26 specimens from the primary sites of patients who were diagnosed with squamous cell cancers of the head and neck. Immunohistochemstry and DNA flowcytometry were performed at almost the same sections of the primary sites. To quantify angiogenesis, the microvessel density was determined by counting the number of the vascular endothelial cells positively stained with CD-31 under the magnification filed power of 200 by two investigators; the cell number was determined by taking the average of the highest values of three counts made by each investigator. Immunohistochemical staining with Ki67 and p53 were also done to evaluate the cellular proliferation of tumors and the overexpression of mutated tumor suppressor gene. DNA flowcytometry was performed to evaluate the ploidy and proliferation index. These results were compared and analyzed with clinical parameters. RESULTS: All of the parameters failed to show a significant relationship to nodal status in this study. However, the microvessel density of the laryngeal cancers showed a statistically significant relationship with the cervical nodal metastasis (p=0.045). CONCLUSION: The microvessel density may have a correlation to the lymph nodal metastasis in the head and neck squamous cell cancer and may be regarded as an additional prognostic factor for planning treatment.