[Histologic grading of malignancy and prognosis in laryngeal neoplasms]

The semi-quantitative grading system for squamous cell carcinoma based on estimation of multiple histologic variables according to Jakobsson is presented. Selected histologic parameters have been also evaluated regarding their importance in predicting patient outcome. Features such as differentiation of the tumor cells, their nuclear polymorphism, number of mitoses and vascular invasion significantly correlated with clinical outcome. The structure of the tumor and cellular host response had no influence on survival. There was statistically significant relationship between the patient outcome and histologic grade of malignancy expressed by total point value. The incidence of cervical node and distant metastases was three times more frequent in the group of poorly differentiated tumors than in others. There was no correlation found between the localization of the tumor and the degree of cancer differentiation, but the supraglottic tumors poorly and moderately differentiated infiltrated towards the glottis more often then highly differentiated.