Pancytokeratin immunostained tumor buds and cytoplasmic pseudofragments are reliable early predictive variables for regional lymph node metastatic risk assessment of oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Abstract

The 5-year survival rate in patients with cervical lymph node metastasis is reported to be 20-36% post surgery as compared to 63-86% in patients without nodal involvement. This necessitates assessing the metastatic potential of OSCC patients. To evaluate the role of Pancytokeratin immunostained tumour buds and cytoplasmic pseudofragments with other histopathological and immunohistochemical variables in predicting metastatic risk of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC). Retrospective study on archival tissues of OSCC available from the Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology. Totally. Pearson's Chi square test and Man Whitney U test were used and analysed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0. Metastatic OSCC showed significantly high number of tumour buds (p = 0.001), cytoplasmic pseudofragments (p = 0.008), higher tumour grade (p = 0.038), lymphovascular invasion (p = 0.008) and LVD (p = 0.013), aggressive invasive tumour front pattern (p = 0.001) compared to non-metastatic OSCC. Pancytokeratin immunostained tumour buds, cytoplasmic pseudofragments and higher LYVE-1 expression may be used as independent predictors for OSCC metastasis.