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CD105 (endoglin) positive microvessel density in squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. Objectives: Microvascular density has been used as a marker of angiogenesis. Recently, the superiority of CD105 to other panendothelial markers in the identification of microvascular density has been proven. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the microvessel density detected by CD105 and the prognosis in cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. Methodology: This retrospective study included 37 tongue squamous cell carcinoma cases. Survival, and some clinicopathological variables including age, gender, histological grade, tumour thickness, T-stage, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, local recurrence, and distant metastasis, were noted. Immunohistochemically, microvascular density (MVD) of the invasive front of the tumour and intratumoural area were identified using CD105.
Results: In cases with high microvessel density at the invasive front of the tumour, there was a higher lymph node metastasis rate, higher T-stage and greater tumour thickness compared with cases that had a low microvessel density. Overall, the difference between survival rates associated with low and high microvessel density was not statistically significant (p = 0.060).
Conclusions: High microvessel density identified using CD105 is related to lymph node metastasis, T-stage and tumour thickness. However, there is no association between microvessel density and survival. The determination of microvessel density, with CD105 at the invasive front, may be helpful to predict the biological behaviour of tongue cancer.