Quantitative assessment of CD15 positive tissue eosinophils in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: effects on mast cells and tumor angiogenesis.

Background: The present study determines to correlate eosinophil, mast cell and microvessel densities with the histopathological grades and clinical staging of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) cases, as the potential role of inflammatory mediators within tumor stroma remains debatable.

Methods: The study sample comprised 60 cases consisting of 40 cases of Well to moderately differentiated OSCC (group 1) and 20 cases of poorly differentiated OSCC (group 2). Immunohistochemistry with anti-CD15 antibody and antifactor VIII antibody; and toluidine blue special stain were employed for the detection of eosinophils, microvessels, and mast cells, respectively.

Results: The mean numbers of eosinophils, mast cells, and microvessels per high power field in group 1 and group 2 were 15.37±11.86 and 12.62±14.30, 6.00±4.84 and 4.51±4.51, 13.96±6.25 and 6.62±2.05, respectively. Eosinophil density had a positive correlation with both mast cell and microvessel density. Also, the correlation of primary tumor size (T status) with microvessel density was found to be statistically significant (P≤0.05).

Conclusions: The cohesive interpretation of the aforementioned mediators in OSCC suggested that while these variables correlate well with the differentiation of tumor, the quantification did not correlate with the clinical staging of the disease.