Comparative metabolic analysis in head and neck cancer and the normal gingiva.

Objectives: Chronic accumulation of lactate in malignant tumor tissue is associated with increased malignancy and radioresistance. For this study, biopsies of primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and of the normal gingiva of the same patient were compared via metabolic profiling to the healthy gingiva from cancer-free patients.

Materials And Methods: Cryobiopsies of 140 HNSCC patients were used to determine ATP, lactate, and glucose concentrations of the tumor and normal gingiva via induced metabolic bioluminescence imaging (imBI).