Association of infiltrating cells with microvessel density in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Several lines of evidence indicate that immune cells in the tumor microenvironment play an important role in regulating tumor progression. An immunohistochemical method was used to examine the abundance of natural killer (NK) cells, mucosal dendritic cells (DCs), macrophages, mast cells, and microvessel density in 78 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC): with better prognosis -OSCCBP (n = 37), and with poorer prognosis -OSCCPP (n = 41), and 18 controls. The mean numbers of macrophages and microvessels were significantly higher in the OSCCPP group in comparison to both OSCCBP and control groups. The mean number of NK cells, mast cells and DCs was lower in the OSCCPP group in comparison to the OSCCBP group, but there were no statistically significant differences between mean numbers of NK cells in tested groups. Statistically significant correlations between the number of DCs and NK cells and mast cells, as well as between microvessel density and numbers of macrophages, DCs and mast cells were revealed in both OSCCPP and OSCCBP groups. In conclusion, our findings revealed an association between the number of infiltrating cells and oral cancer prognosis. Moreover, our results suggest that the infiltrating cells (macrophages, Langerhans and mast cells) may be involved in the process of angiogenesis.

The prognostic role of NK cells and their ligands in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Of the 46 articles that were eligible for inclusion, 13 assessed classical NK cell markers. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] The activating markers group existed of three articles, [39][40][41] the inhibiting markers group of 5 [42][43][44][45][46] and the death receptor group of 25. Figure 1 provides an overview of study selection.…”

“…The four articles that mentioned hazard ratios [26][27][28][29] were selected for meta-analysis after critical appraisal; the forest plot is shown in figure 2. [26][27][28][29][30] The pooled meta-analysis showed an advantage for high CD56+/CD57+ NK cells regarding OS (pooled HR 0.19 CI 0.11-0.35) ( Figure 2). Some studies mentioned no correlation between CD56+ NK cell number and OS or recurrence-free survival (RFS) or between CD57+ NK cells and OS (de Carvalho Fraga et al: OR 1.04,CI 0.44-2.46, p 0.93) or DFS.…”

Histomorphometric Comparative Analysis between Oral Dysplastic Potentially Malignant Disorders and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Other studies have shown divergent results. StaSikOwSka-Kanicka et al 12 also associated the density of infiltrative cells and microvessels in OSCC and observed a significantly lower number of mast cells in lesions with unfavorable prognoses when compared to those with favorable prognoses and proposed that the deficiency of these cells in malignant lesions is associated with poor prognosis.…”

The prognostic significance of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes in oral squamous cell carcinoma

“…Inoralsquamouscellcarcinoma,mostofthecon-ductedstudiesfocusedonTILsspecificsub-types,in the majority of cases using immunohistochemistry, but in a minority of studies supported by flow-cytometry [28] and their association with the most important clinical factors -patient's survivals. Stasikowska-Kanickaet alstudiedCD4,CD8,FOXP3, PD-L1 [20] andnaturalkiller(NK)cells [29],Quanet alCD3,CD4,CD8,CD20,CD38,CD40 [28] [22].AlsoBatoolet alstudiedTILslevelatthetumour/hostinterface,in agroupof50patientswithoralsquamouscellcarcinoma,usingathree-tieredscale,asapartoftheir HistologicalRiskAssessment(worstpatternofinvasion, perineural invasion and lymphocytic infiltrate at interface), however, no statistical correlation was observedbetweentheTILslevelandoverallsurvival,localrecurrence-freesurvivalandlymphnoderecurrence-freesurvival [32].Inastudyconductedby Chatzistamou et al in a group of 52 patients with oraltonguesquamouscellcarcinoma,theTILslevel wasevaluatedintumourstromainatwo-tieredscale andaprognosticsignificancewasobservedbetween TILs level and disease free-survival (DFS), post relapse-survival (PRS) and disease related-mortality (DRM) [23].Xuet alinagroupof202patientswith oralsquamouscellcarcinoma,evaluatedtheTILslevelintumouralstroma,usingathree-tieredscale,and theirfindingsconfirmedthestatisticalcorrelationbe-tweentheTILslevelandadisease-freesurvival(DFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) [24]. Furthermore, the TILs levels showed statistical correlation with DFS and DSS in univariate Cox-proportional hazard models, which is compatible to our study, where TILs levels correlated with OS and LRFS in univariateCox-proportionalhazardmodels.Inmul-tivariateCox-proportionalhazardmodelsTILslevels showedstatisticalcorrelationwithDFSandDSS(Xu et al) -in our study similar correlation was noted (OSandLRFS).Whatisstriking,thatinbothstudies in multivariate Cox-proportional hazard models the [22].…”