6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999

A145
AN IMAGE ANALYSIS STUDY ON MICROVESSEL DENSITY IN METASTASIZED AND NON-METASTASIZED TONGUE CARCINOMAS
Van Der Laak J, Hannen E, Cuijpers V, Slootweg P, Manni J, Hanselaar A, De Wilde P

Dept.Pathology, University Hospital Nijmegen, Netherlands

The angiogenis-inducing capacity of malignant tumours is regarded as an important factor influencing metastatic behaviour. For squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the head and neck there is no consensus concerning the relation between microvessel density (MVD) and metastatic behaviour. The aim of this study is to disclose the relation between metastasis and MVD, size and shape parameters of vessels. Histological sections of 20 metastasized and 20 non-metastasized SCC's of the mobile tongue were assessed. The vessels were immunohistochemically visualized with CD34, and the horseradish peroxidase catalysed deposition of biotinylated tyramine at sites of immunoreactivity was used as a signal amplification system (CARD amplification). The tumours were systematically sampled with 40 to 60 test-fields of 0.17 sq. mm. The digitized images were stored on M.O. disk. The 5 most vascularized test-fields were used to calculate the mean values of MVD, size and shape parameters of the vessel profiles. The major results and conclusions of our study are: 1. CARD amplification was needed for a reliable segmentation of vessels by true colour image analysis. 2. In the group of non-metastasized tumours the MVD (37.5 ± 9.4) was significantly (p=0.003) greater than in the group of metastasized tumours (28.6 ± 8.5). 3. Vessels with a diameter greater than 7 µm were overrepresented in the group of metastasized tumours, and the percentage of vessels with a diameter in the range of 7 - 9 µm was significantly (p=0.05) greater in the group of metastasized tumours. 4. Measurement of MVD, size and shape parameters could not be used to obtain a reliable predictor for the presence of metastasis; we found 35% misclassifications in the group of non-metastasized and 30% misclassifications in the group of metastasized tumours.