Tumor angiogenesis as a prognostic factor in early oral tongue cancer
T. Shpitzer, M. Chaimoff, R. Gal, Y. Stern, R. Feinmesser and K. Segal
Laboratory of Head and Neck Tumors, Felsenstein Medical Research Institute, Petah Tiqva, Israel.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between tumor angiogenesis and the
subsequent development of cervical node metastases in patients with stage 1
carcinoma of the oral tongue. METHODS: The study group consisted of 25
patients with T1 carcinoma with no evidence of neck disease at
presentation. Paraffin blocks from 10 patients, in whom neck node
metastases were found shortly after surgery, were stained for factor VIII
and compared with those from 10 randomly chosen patients in whom no
evidence of recurrent disease was observed during prolonged followup.
Microvessels were counted in each group. RESULTS: The microvessel counts
correlated with metastatic disease. The mean +/- SD count was 103.41 +/-
40.72 per X 250 field in the patients with positive lymph node metastases
and 50.03 +/- 13.74 per X 250 field in those with no lymph node metastases
during follow-up (P < or = .05). CONCLUSIONS: The number of microvessels
per X 250 field in the area of most intensive neovascularization in early
oral tongue carcinoma may be an independent predictor of nodal metastases.
Assessment of tumor angiogenesis may therefore prove valuable in selecting
patients with early oral tongue carcinoma for aggressive therapy.
