Tissue Eosinophilia and its Association with Tumoral Invasion of Oral Cancer

Abstract

This study investigated if tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia (TATE) could be associated with the process of tissue invasion in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) and its influence on patient's prognosis. Forty-three patients treated for OSCCs with or without lymph nodes involvement, at A. C. Camargo Cancer Hospital, Brazil, were selected for TATE analysis. Two degrees of tissue eosinophilia were established in OSCC: absent/mild and intense. The TATE was evaluated in relation to the clinicopathological features and prognostic value using χ² test and the Kaplan—Meier method. Most of the patients with OSCC in advanced clinical stage presented muscular infiltration and significantly intense TATE whereas those with tumors in early stage frequently showed absent/mild eosinophilia (P = .009). The TATE showed no prognostic value for 5-year and 10-year survival rates of the OSCC. These findings suggest that intense TATE seems to reflect the stromal invasion of the OSCCs that occur in advanced clinical stage.

Keywords

oral cancer tissue eosinophilia eosinophils cancer

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Cormier SA , Taranova AG , Bedient C. , et al.: Pivotal Advance: eosinophil infiltration of solid tumors is an early and persistent inflammatory host response. J Leukoc Biol. 2006;79:1131-1139.

Dorta RG , Landman G. , Kowalski LP , Lauris JR , Latorre MR , Oliveira DT Tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia as a prognostic factor in oral squamous cell carcinomas. Histopathology. 2002;41:152-157.

Ellyard JI , Simson L. , Parisch CR Th2-mediated anti-tumour immunity: friend or foe? Tissue Antigens . 2007;70:1-11.

Hogan SP Recent advances in eosinophil biology. Int Arch Allergy Immunol . 2007;143(Suppl 1):3-14.

Mingomataj EC Eosinophil-induced prognosis improvement of solid tumors could be enabled by their vesicle-mediated barrier permeability induction. Med Hypotheses. 2008;70:582-584.

Munitz A. , Levi-Schaffer F. Eosinophils: "new" roles for "old" cells. Allergy. 2004;59:268-275.

Alrawi, SJ , Tan D. , Stoler DL , et al. Tissue eosinophilic infiltration: a useful marker for assessing stromal invasion, survival and locoregional recurrence in head and neck squamous neoplasia. Cancer J. 2005;11:217-225.

Said M. , Wiseman S. , Yang J. , et al. Tissue eosinophilia: a morphologic marker for assessing stromal invasion in laryngeal squamous neoplasms. BMC Clin Pathol . 2005;5:1.

Lorena SC , Oliveira DT , Dorta RG , Landman G. , Kowalski LP Eotaxin expression in oral squamous cell carcinomas with and without tumour associated tissue eosinophilia. Oral Dis. 2003;9:279-283.

10.

Samoszuk M. Eosinophils and human cancer. Histol Histopathol. 1997;12:807-812.

11.

Zeh HJ 3rd , Lotze MT Addicted to death: invasive cancer and the immune response to unscheduled cell death. J Immunother. 2005;28:1-9.

12.

Oliveira DT , de Moraes RV , Fiamengui Filho JF , Fanton Neto J. , Landman G. , Kowalski LP Oral verrucous carcinoma: a retrospective study in São Paulo region, Brazil. Clin Oral Investig. 2006;10:205-209.

13.

Pereira MC , Oliveira DT , Landman G. , Kowalski LP Histologic subtypes of oral squamous cell carcinoma: prognostic relevance . J Can Dent Assoc. 2007;73:339-344.

14.

Sugihara R. , Kumamoto T. , Ito T. , Ueyama H. , Toyoshima I. , Tsuda T. Human muscle protein degradation in vitro by eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) . Muscle Nerve. 2001;24:1627-1634.

15.

Tepper RI , Pattengale PK , Leder P. Murine interleukin-4 displays potent anti-tumour activity in vivo. Cell. 1989;57:503-512.

16.

Simson L. , Ellyard J. , Dent L. , et al. Regulation of carcinogenesis by IL-5 and CCL11: a potential role for eosinophils in tumour immune surveillance. J Immunol . 2007;178:4222-4229.