TUMOR ANGIOGENESIS AS A PREDICTOR OF TUMOR AGGRESSIVENESS AND METASTATIC POTENTIAL IN SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMA OF THE HEAD AND NECK

Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck induces neovascularizatio n to support tumor growth and facilitate the metastatic spread. Others have suggested that the density of microvessels within the tumor corr elates with the neovascularization process and therefore with clinical behavior and outcome. To ascertain the value of the microvessel count as an independent prognostic indicator for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, we studied the primary tumors of 44 patients. Hist ological slides were stained for factor VIII and the individual microv essels were counted on a 200 x field (0.49 mm). No statistically signi ficant difference was found between the microvessel counts of tumors t hat metastasize or recur locally, as compared with turners that did no t, The possibility of a beta-error due to the small number of cases ma ndates a larger, possibly multi-institutional, study to better ascerta in the significance of a microvessel count as an independent prognosti c indicator.