Abstract
Cervical metastasis is occasionally observed in early stage of oral squamous cell carcinoma. This study was carried out to elucidate the difference in histological malignancy and expression of extracellular matrix between metastatic and nonmetastatic cases. There were 31 T1 cases, consisting of 8 with cervical metastasis and 25 with nonmetastasis.
In the metastatic cases, plural and extranodal metastases were frequently observed, leading to a poor prognosis. Primary tumor of metastatic cases showed the following characteristics in comparison with that of nonmetastatic cases :
1) High grade of histological malignancy, judging from mode of invasion, stage of invasion and cellular response, was observed in the metastatic cases.
2) Increased regulation of fibroneticn and tenascin expression and the decreased regulation of decorin expression in tumor stroma were more frequently observed in the metasatic cases.
These results suggest that the T1 case displaying aspects of the high grade of histological malignancy and the characteristic distribuion of extracellular matrices in the tumor stroma is highly potential for metastasis. Consequently, prophylactic neck dissection should be primarily considered in the T1 cases with these aspects.
