Abstract LB-373: Lymphatic vessels and neoformed microvessels density in primary oral squamous cell carcinoma and associated lymph nodes

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the density of lymphatic vessels (LVD) and neoformed microvessels (MVD) in primary oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and associated lymph nodes, metastatic or not, and the association of such densities with clinicopathological behavior and metastasis presence. Since vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) induces tumor lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis, this protein was also analyzed in tumor parenchyma. For evaluation of primary tumor, thirty-six paraffin-embedded samples of OSCC were investigated. The tumors were histologically graded and all clinical data of the patients, as tumor size and nodal metastasis were obtained from the medical records. Intratumoral and peritumoral lymphatic (LVD) and neoformed (MVD) vessels were identified by immunohistochemistry using D2–40 and CD105 antibodies respectively. The sum of intra and peritumoral lymphatic and neoformed microvessels was determined as total LVD and total MVD in a magnification of 400x. The same method of count was applied in the analysis of vascular density in lymph nodes. The immunoexpression of VEGF-C was determined by percentage of strongly positive tumour cells. Intratumoral lymphatic vessel density mean was 2.95±3.30, peritumoral mean was 2.96±2.23 and total LVD mean was 5.86±4.81. MVD intratumoral mean was 7.40±4.55, peritumoral mean was 6.25±3.92 and total MVD mean was 13.66±7.30. Intratumoral LVD was significantly lower in poor differentiated tumors (p<0,05). Total MVD was higher in cases with lymph node involvement (p<0.05). An association between VEGF-C positivity and metastasis was also observed (p<0,05). The LVD and MVD in metastatic lymph nodes were significantly higher than in non metastatic lymph nodes (p<0,001). In conclusion lower LVD and higher MVD were associated with high grade malignancy and presence of metastasis. In addition, the metastatic lymph nodes demonstrated a significantly higher vascular density comparatively to non metastatic lymph nodes and the influence of this finding in occurrence of distance metastasis should be investigated in further studies. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-373. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-LB-373