title: Low vascular density indicates poor response to radiotherapy in small glottic carcinomas.
abstract: Reportedly, the high density of vessels adjacent to various tumours is associated with increased tendency to metastasis and poor prognosis. In contrast, for other cancers a high vessel density is correlated with a good response to radiation therapy, and thus a good prognosis. In this study we measured the vessel density in 53 small glottic SCC (T1N0 and T2N0), treated with radiation (66-70 Gy). The blood vessels were visualised by an immunohistochemical staining method (ABC), using a primary antibody BE2 which reacts with blood group H antigen on endothelial cells. The intra- and interobserver reproducibility of the vessel counting was good (kappa = 0.78). We found a significant correlation between low vascular density and increased risk of recurrent disease (p = 0.0158). cox multivariate analysis showed that both vascular density and T-status were significant prognostic factors, p = 0.0036 and p = 0.0152 respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Pathology, University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jenssen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boysen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kjaerheim
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bryne
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000473:pathology; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D005931:Glottis; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D013194:Staining and Labeling