Jain Megha, Saawarn Swati, Gupta Anish, Ashok Sahana, Mhaske Shubhangi, Khan Samark, Jain Manish
Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Peoples Dental Academy, Bhopal, India.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, College of Dentistry, Jazan University, Jazan KSA.
Gulf J Oncolog. 2017 Jan;1(23):52-56.
Cellular cannibalism is defined as the ability of a cell to engulf another cell of its own type or any other. It has been recognized in various malignancies and is linked well with the aggressiveness, degree of anaplasia, invasiveness and metastatic potential. Literature search fetched up very few studies related to the presence and significance of cannibalism with respect to Oral squamous cell carcinoma [OSCC]. The present study was aimed to detect tumor cell cannibalism in OSCC and to validate its role as a prognosticator of OSCC in relation to metastasis and degree of differentiation.
30 histopathologically proven cases, 15 cases each of metastatic OSCC (7 well differentiated OSCC and 8 moderately differentiated OSCC) and non-metastatic OSCC (8 well differentiated OSCC and 7 moderately differentiated OSCC) were included in the study. Quantitative assessment of tumor cell cannibalism was done. The data was analyzed using Mann Whitney test.
Metastatic OSCC showed higher frequency of cannibalistic cells compared to non-metastatic OSCC. More number of cannibalistic cells were found in moderately differentiated OSCC than well differentiated OSCC in both groups. Moreover, Grade III cannibalism and complex cannibalism was also found to be associated with metastatic, moderately differentiated OSCC exclusively.
It has been found that higher number of cannibalistic cells were associated with OSCC showing metastasis indicating their aggressive behavior. So, we recommend that quantitative assessment of tumor cell cannibalism should become a part of the routine histopathological examination of OSCC to screen its hostile behavior.
细胞吞噬作用定义为细胞吞噬自身类型或其他任何类型细胞的能力。它在多种恶性肿瘤中已得到确认，并且与侵袭性、间变程度、浸润性和转移潜能密切相关。文献检索发现极少有关于口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）中细胞吞噬作用的存在及其意义的研究。本研究旨在检测OSCC中的肿瘤细胞吞噬作用，并验证其作为OSCC转移和分化程度预后指标的作用。
本研究纳入30例经组织病理学证实的病例，其中转移性OSCC 15例（7例高分化OSCC和8例中分化OSCC），非转移性OSCC 15例（8例高分化OSCC和7例中分化OSCC）。对肿瘤细胞吞噬作用进行定量评估。数据采用曼-惠特尼检验进行分析。
与非转移性OSCC相比，转移性OSCC显示出更高频率的吞噬细胞。在两组中，中分化OSCC中发现的吞噬细胞数量均多于高分化OSCC。此外，III级吞噬作用和复杂吞噬作用仅与转移性中分化OSCC相关。
已发现较高数量的吞噬细胞与发生转移的OSCC相关，表明它们具有侵袭性行为。因此，我们建议肿瘤细胞吞噬作用的定量评估应成为OSCC常规组织病理学检查的一部分，以筛查其侵袭性行为。
