Neural and Vascular Invasions of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this retrospective study was to identify perineural and vascular invasions in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma lesions. Methods: A series of 29 OSSC-diagnosed patients and their clinical and demographic data were collected. In order to identify invasive process, Hematoxiline and Eosin (HE) staining of all cases were analysed and CD31, CD34, S100 and PGP9.5 protein expression were performed by immunhistochemistry. Results: All data were statistically assessed by Kappa test and McNemar’s. We identified vascular and perineural invasions in 17.2% and 31% of cases, respectively, by HE staining analysis. We found intense peritumoral microvascular density in 82.8% of cases, by CD31 immunostaining. The CD34 antibody was recorded only 6.9% of cases with vascular invasion. Perineural invasion was detected in 44.8% of S100 protein immunostained cases, and 58.6% of cases were immunostained by PGP9.5 protein. Conclusion: According to our H/E and immunohistochemistry analysis, regarding the presence of perineural invasion, PGP9.5 protein was more effective than the others. It was concluded that the identification of vascular and perineural invasions is a useful tool for the prognosis of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma, thus histopathological and immunohistochemistry methods should be combined for an effective analysis for this tumor.