Angiogenesis: Prognostic significance in laryngeal cancer

The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of angiogenesis in the progr ession of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). We correlated disease-f ree survival with microvessel count (MC) in the hot spot areas of 97 random ly selected caucasian males with LSCC followed for 60 to 90 months after su rgery with or without radiotherapy. The results obtained indicate that: a) MC higher than 130 microvessels/mm(2) is a cut-offvalue that distinguished patients who relapsed during the follow up period; b) multivariated analysi s indicates that MC (p< 0,00001) is an independent predictor of disease fre e-survival; c) multivariated analysis selectively done on cases with relaps e demonstrates that MC correlates with the presence of metastasis (or/and M ) with local relapse (T). We suggest that MC is useful in the assessment of prognosis in LSCC and probably will permit selection of patients that coul d benefit fr om anti-angiogenic therapy associated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.