Evaluation of the primary tumour and the metastatic lymph node with or without extracapsular spread by means of argyrophillic nucleolar regions (AgNOR).
Though TNM staging is the most popular clinical system for defining the prognosis of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC), different clinical trials of the tumours with the same TNM stage have caused doubts about this system. Extra Capsular Spread (ECS) in a metastatic lymph node is one of the recently defined prognostic factors in HNSCC. The hypothesis of this study was to assess the relationship between the primary tumour of laryngeal and oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma and the metastatic lymph nodes with and without ECS. The argyrophillic Nucleolar Organiser Regions (AgNOR) count was used as an index of the grade of malignancy of the neoplastic tissue. As a result, significantly higher AgNOR counts were obtained in the metastatic lymph nodes with ECS than in the primary tumours, while the lowest AgNOR counts were found in the metastatic lymph nodes without ECS. However, when primary tumours of the metastatic lymph nodes with ECS and the primary tumours of the metastatic lymph nodes without ECS were compared, no significant difference was found.
Bilgen
C
C
9 Eylül University, Medical Faculty, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Izmir, Turkey.
Sarioglu
S
S
Ceryan
K
K
D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000556:secondary* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016622:Silver Staining