The prognostic significance of stromal eosinophilia in head and neck cancer.

The pathologies of 82 head and neck tumors were examined for histologic features suggestive of poor prognoses. Twelve descriptive histopathologic variables, including two grading scales for malignant tumors, were correlated with DNA flow cytometric data and clinical outcome. We found no correlation between the grading scales and DNA flow cytometric data or clinical outcome. Only one of the histopathologic variables--stromal eosinophilia--was found to significantly correlate with favorable outcome (p = .018). Stromal eosinophilia may be an important new prognostic indicator for head and neck cancer.