Microscopic aspects of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Despite various great scientific and financial efforts, head and neck carcinomas represent a public health problem, being the eighth cause of cancer death worldwidely. The rate of tumor growth, its local expansion, as well as the metastasis of cancerous cells depend on the tumor vascularization, on the ability of blood vessels to provide a constant supply of nourishing substances and oxygen and to eliminate the residual products resulted from tumor growth. That is why angiogenesis and lymphogenesis are considered to be essential processes within the neoplastic process. The assessment of tumoral neoformed blood vessels in oral squamous carcinomas, using the CD34 antibody, showed a significant growth of the microvascular density, the average number being 504.66±177.65 vessels/mm². The diameter of angiogenesis vessels varied between 3.42 and 121.27 µm. The density of lymphogenesis vessels was 508.78±235.93 vessels/mm², while the diameter varied from 2.82 to 165.28 µm. Both angiogenesis and lymphogenesis vessels were more numerous in the areas where the inflammatory infiltrate was more abundant, which suggests that chronic inflammation plays the part of a promoter factor of neoplastic lesions.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity: clinical and pathological aspects.

Oral cavity cancer is a public health problem as the sixth leading cause of cancer worldwide. Most tumor lesions are detected in stage III and IV, leading to a poor prognosis, five-year survival rate ranging between 10% and 40%. Oral cancer etiology is multifactorial, known still incomplete. The main etiopathogenic factors are exposure to cigarette smoke and alcohol consumption. We conducted a retrospective study of oral cavity tumors hospitalized in 2008-2012 in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic of the Emergency County Hospital of Craiova, Romania. Of 143 tumors of the oral cavity, 125 were malignant, and of these, 115 (92%) were represented by squamous cell carcinoma. Tumor lesions were more common in males (69%), patients from rural areas (64%) and those over 50-year-old (87.71%).

Microscopic aspects of pulpal changes in patients with chronic marginal periodontitis.

Chronic periodontitis is one of the most frequent and severe diseases involving the tooth. Untreated, they can lead to tooth loss. Our study involved 67 patients with chronic marginal periodontitis who underwent tooth extraction, of which 29 had moderate periodontal lesions and 38 severe periodontal lesions. The microscopic study of the dental pulp revealed significant changes in all patients. In patients with moderate periodontitis the pulp tissue was found to be the site of an enhanced process of collagenous fibrosis associated with a moderate inflammatory infiltrate, dystrophic mineralization, reduced blood vascularization and arteriolosclerosis. The dental pulp of patients with severe periodontitis showed an abundant chronic inflammatory infiltrate associated with pulpal necrosis, vascular congestion, microhemorrhages, dentin demineralization and odontoblast impairment.

Histopathological aspects of benign epithelial tumors located in areas of friction or chronic irritation of the tongue.

Besides lesions considered to be premalignant (such as erythroplasia, Bowen disease), a number of other potentially malignant lesions with higher or lower degree of epithelial dysplasia depending on the keratinization degree or determined by the action of carcinogens and irritants substances are described in the oral mucosa. Although they are practically considered the most harmless formations located on the oral mucosa, papillomas and condylomas are also the most frequent. In this study (conducted on a total of 38 cases with benign neoplasia) we planned a histopathological evaluation of surgical excision samples obtained from interventions on lingual neoplasias and harvested from the areas most exposed to chronic trauma or the areas in direct contact with mechanical irritants, in order to determine the histopathological pattern of the different types of histopathological lesions, the possible presence of keratosis-type changes or even possible dysplasias.

Histopathological aspects of benign mesenchymal tumors located in "high risk areas" of the tongue.

Although a series of premalignant or potentially malignant lesions are described in the tongue, there are many other lesions whose potential of degeneration can be determined by a prolonged action of irritant or carcinogenic factors. Even if they are practically considered to be harmless, benign formations of mesenchymal origin with lingual location represent in the same time a neoplastic lesion under the influence of local and general factors, for a variable period of time. When these structures are located in major risk areas from the oral cavity and in particular, those directly related to the tongue, special attention should be paid to their development. In this study (conducted on a total of 16 cases of benign mesenchymal malignancies), we planned a histopathological evaluation of surgical excision samples obtained from interventions on lingual neoplasias, and harvested from areas with the highest risk for lingual cancer development (pelvilingual groove, the base of the tongue and the insertion of the anterior pillar) in order to assess the histopathological aspects in different types of lesions and the possible presence of degenerative changes.

Cathepsin-D expression in breast lesion: an immunohistochemical study.

Cathepsin-D (CathD) is an aspartyl lysosomal protease expressed in all tissues that might play a role in antigen processing, cell proliferation and tissue renewal, and activation of different pro hormones. The aim of our study was to compare the expression of CathD in most common breast tumors and tumor-like breast lesions. The study includes 21 patients with histologically verified breast lesions (adenosis, ductal hyperplasia, fibroadenomas, and different types of invasive carcinoma). We investigated the cathepsin-D expression in these breast lesions using immunohistochemistry (IH; paraffin-embedded tissues). Cathepsin-D staining within each lesion was assessed by estimating the area of the objects and the medium pixel intensity per object, as the integrated optical density (IOD). The immunostaining was more obvious in breast invasive carcinomas and macrophages. The reaction in tumor tissue was heterogeneous with little variation of staining intensity in positive tumor cells. Adenosis had the maximum area/signal intensity from all studied breast benign lesions (p<0.001, Student t-test). The general tendency (all benign lesions, lobular carcinomas and G3 ductal invasive carcinoma) was a more prominent representation of the cellular compartment. In the G3 ductal invasive carcinoma-type, the group of patients with metastases had a stronger expression in the cellular compartment. These results suggest that CathD expression was strongest in malignant than in benign breast disease, the positivity being present in both epithelial neoplastic and stromal cells. We also conclude that our procedure in IOD measurement is prone to less subjective-related biases, and thus more accurate and constant than other methods employed by other authors.