RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lower lip is a relatively rare carcinoma, with the incidence of 1 to 2%, but it is the most common carcinoma in the oral cavity accounting for 25-30% of all malignant oral tumours. AIM: This study aimed to determine the role of neovascularisation in the process of tumour progression. METHODS: We analysed the surgical specimens obtained from 60 patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lower lip. The examined group consisted of 45 specimens of patients without metastasis and 15 specimens of patients with metastasis in the regional lymph nodes. Histopathological slides were immunohistochemically stained with an antibody against CD34 and by hematoxylin & eosin staining for routine histopathological examination. RESULTS: The results obtained showed a statistically significant difference in the density of neovascularisation between groups of the SCC with different grade of differentiation (Kruskal-Wallis test: H (2, N = 60) = 30.0943, p = 0.00001). Statistical analysis also showed a significant difference in the density of vascularisation of lower lip SCC between patients without metastasis and patients with neck metastasis (Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.000198). Applying Pearson's chi-square test, we found a highly significant statistical difference in grade of SCC differentiation in patients with and without neck metastasis (p = 0.0000). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the density of neoangiogenesis is increased in tumours with poorer differentiation and in patients with neck metastasis. So, the density of neovascularisation of the primary lip SCC may predict the tumour progression.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Abnormal angiogenesis is described in tumor growth and it facilitates its metastatic spread. Tumors with high angiogenic activity belong to the category of aggressive tumors with poor prognosis for patients. The aim of this study was to determine the blood vessels density (BVD), i.e. neovascularization at the tumor invasive front in skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in order to determine its possible role in the tumor progression, and to correlate it to the blood vessels density of healthy skin and with the prognostic parameters of the TNM classification: T status, depth of tumor invasion (DI) and tumor histological grade (G), which were also correlated between each other. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The material consisted of surgical specimens obtained from 30 patients with skin SCC, who underwent surgery. Tissue samples were routinely processed by standard paraffin technique stained by Hematoxilin-Eosin and immunohistochemically with antibodies against smooth muscle actin (SMA) and CD34. The BVD in the invasive front of the neoplasms was correlated to the healthy skin, tumor status (pT), depth of invasion and grade of histological differentiation (pG). RESULTS: The histological analysis has shown a high statistical difference in the density of blood vessels in SCC compared to the healthy skin and statistical difference in BVD in neoplasms with different depth of invasion and different grade of differentiation. The density of neovascularzation increased with the deeper invasion and the worse differentiation. CONCLUSION: The increased vascularization at the invasive front of SCC with deeper invasion and worse differentiation has pointed out to its possible role in neoplasm progression.
