A morphological study of stromal microvasculature of nasopharyngeal precancerous lesions

24 specimens of nasopharyngeal precancerous lesions (NPP) were studied for stromal microvasculature by light microscope and image analysis for quantitation. FVIIIR: Ag was used as a vascular endothelium marker to show the blood vessels by immunohistochemistry. The microscopic and quantitative results showed that most cases had abnormal hyperplastic features similar to the stromal neovascularization of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). These findings suggest that abnormal hyperplastic vessels may be a prerequisite to cancerous transformation of nasopharyngeal epithelium.