DIFFERENTIAL MAST CELL POPULATION IN SUBTYPES AND METASTATIC ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA

Abstract

Tumor microenvironment is a dynamic network, orchestrated by neoplastic, non-neoplastic cellular, and non-cellular components in tumorigenesis, cancer progression, and metastasis. Mast cells (MCs) can modulate tumor cell activity during angiogenesis and extracellular matrix degradation in breast and lung cancers. MCs are distinguished according neutral proteases like tryptase (MCT), tryptase/chymase (MCTC), and chymase only (MCC). Its role in oral cancer remain controversial. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) represents 90% of cases of head and neck cancer with considerable mortality and morbidity. Objectives To identify MC population in two topographic regions among OSCC subtypes. Material and methods Immunohistochemical study of mast cell tryptase and mast cell chymase was performed in 54 cases of OSCC. Positive cells were counted in 10 consecutive fields at 400X magnification in peritumoral and intratumoral regions. Negative control was considered at the surgical margin histologically negative. Results Overall MC density increased 6.3 times in OSCC. MCTC density was significantly higher than MCT (p Conclusion MC population is highly increased in OSCC predominantly with MCTC.High density of chymase-positivity cells suggests a subset of MC chymase only in OSCC and its expression may be related to tobacco consumption, metastasis, local invasion, and differentiation.