Electron microscopy of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck carries a bad prognosis. In order to achieve cure, the most important thing to attain is local tumour control. The main therapy available is external radiotherapy, which can be supplemented when necessary, with interstitial radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery. In this paper we have evaluated specimens, taken before therapy, from 35 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses were made. With SEM, the parameters analysed were the amount and appearance of microvilli, filaments, and blood vessels. From TEM, scoring was made of the filaments, desmosomes, nuclei, nucleoli, mitochondria, and blood vessels. Scoring of the samples showed a difference between the group with recurrent disease (n = 10, Group 1) and the group with local tumor control (n = 25, Group 2) in regard to both blood vessels and intracellular filaments. No differences of the nuclei, nucleoli, or the mitochondria were observed.