Prognostic factors in squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx

Sixty-three patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx were includ ed in a retrospective study examining the influence of the following progno stic indicators: localization, size of primary tumor, presence or absence o f neck metastases, disease stage and histologic grade of differentiation. F low cytometric analysis of the cell cycle, DNA ploidy and proliferative act ivity as direct prognostic indicators of tumor aggression was performed on paraffin-embedded blocks of specimens taken from 36 patients. Supraglottic tumor localization (p = 0.008), greater tumor size (p = 0.0064), local neck metastases (p 0.00009), higher clinical disease stage (p = 0.0030), DNA an euploidy (p = 0.0091), higher overall activity (p = 0.0001), and higher ove rall proliferative activity of diploid tumors (p = 0.0017) were found to be significant single unfavorable prognostic indicators of overall survival, whereas the histological grade of differentiation was not found to be a rel iable prognostic indicator (p = 0.988). Only a higher overall proliferative activity of tumor cells was confirmed by the multivariate analysis as a re liable unfavorable prognostic indicator (p = 0.013). Cellular DNA content ( ploidy, overall proliferative activity and overall proliferative activity o f diploid tumors) correlated significantly with primary localization and si ze of the tumor, the presence of local metastases in the neck and the disea se stage. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.