Stereology study of oral verrucous carcinoma

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most prevalent malignant neoplasm of the oral cavity and oral verrucous carcinoma (OVC) is a verrucous variant of SCC. The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical classification of OVC and see for any difference in the biological behavior between OVC and CSS.

OVC and SCC were divided into 5 groups: the exogenic type of OVC (eOVC), cystoid type of OVC (cOVC) and infiltrative type of OVC (iOVC); well differentiated SCC (wdSCC), and medium/poorly differentiated SCC (m/pdSCC). A normal mucosa (NM) group was also created and studied. Stereology was used to measure and describe the morphological parameters of the nucleus to cytoplasm ratio (Vnp), desmosomes, mitochondria, etc. Analysed were also the nucleus volume density (Vv), Vnp, desmosomes and intracellular desmosomes number density (Nv), which were observed by stereology.

We noticed some statistically significant differences in the morphological parameters among the 6 groups including the Vv (p<0.05), the Vnp (p<0.05), the number density of desmosomes (p<0.05), and the Nv (p<0.05).

This study provides a theoretical basis for the clinical diagnosis and therapy of OVC.