title: Dendritic cells: friends or foes of laryngeal cancer?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dendritic cells are important keyplayers of various malignant tumors but less studied in laryngeal malignancies. We assessed the immunohistochemical expression and distribution of dendritic cells in different types of laryngeal carcinomas and tried to find if they could influence evolution and prognosis of such malignancies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemistry was applied on 49 laryngeal tumors. Dendritic cells were identified by using S100 protein staining. The specimens were then evaluated for dendritic cells presence, number and distribution.
  
  
  RESULTS
  S100 positive cells were identified in all cases of squamous cell carcinoma, being absent in the case of adenoid cell carcinoma. Squamous cells carcinomas had the highest numbers of S100 positive cells. For them, we encountered an inverse correlation between peri- and intra-tumor S100 positive cells density. Intraepithelial dendritic cells density was lower for undifferentiated squamous cell carcinoma, also as for stroma of well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Poorly differentiated carcinoma had a higher density of stromal S100 positive cells. S100 positive cells were identified in tumor area with squamous differentiation in all cases, and in peritumor area in 41 cases (83.67%). S100 positive cells density was correlated with tumor grade but not with invasion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taking together, our results suggest that migration of stromal dendritic cells inside tumor areas could be an important component of the antitumor immune response induction and thus, S100 positive dendritic cells may be considered as a favorable prognostic factor in laryngeal carcinomas.
authors.affiliation: ENT Department, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Doroş
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Balica
authors.forename: Anca Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cîmpean
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies