Microvascular irregularities are associated with composition of squamous epithelial lesions and correlate with subepithelial invasion of superficial-type pharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Superficial squamous epithelial lesions of the pharynx are increasingly recognized by architectural changes in the intraepithelial papillary capillary loop (IPCL) assessed by narrow-band imaging (NBI). The aim was to explore the histology of squamous epithelial precursor lesions and superficial-type pharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (STPSCC), including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in situ and early invasive SCC, by focusing on microvascular irregularities to investigate the composition of those lesions and to explore the pathological characteristics of STPSCCs.


RESULTS
Several pathological factors including thickness of intraepithelial squamous cell carcinoma (IESCC) and tumour thickness and microvascular density (MVD) were examined in 104 STPSCCs from 69 patients. The results show that architectural change of IPCL was recognized in precursor lesions in parallel with architectural disturbance and cytological atypia for criteria of diagnosing dysplasia. In 104 STPSCCs, the MVD of IESCC was correlated with the thickness of IESCC (P = 0.0115). Moreover, invasive SCC showed significantly higher MVD of IESCC (P = 0.0078) and there was significant correlation between the thickness of IESCC and subepithelial invasion (P < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Microvascular irregularities are an important pathological factor in carcinogenesis and early invasiveness of SCC of the pharynx.
Fujii
Satoshi
S
Pathology Division, Research Centre for Innovative Oncology, National Cancer Centre at Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan.
Yamazaki
Manabu
M
Muto
Manabu
M
Ochiai
Atsushi
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002196:Capillaries / Q000473:pathology; D002278:Carcinoma in Situ / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D010610:Pharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D010614:Pharynx / Q000473:pathology; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology