The place of the histopathologic exam for establishing the profile of the squamous cell carcinoma of the lower lip with a high degree of malignity.

UNLABELLED: The squamous cell carcinoma of the lip has a metastasizing potential by lymphatic or/and sanguine ways. OBJECTIVE: Knowing the profile of the squamous cell carcinoma of the lip with a high degree of metastasizing. PATIENTS AND METHOD: We have analyzed on a group of 322 patients the influence of the degree of the histological differentiation of the tumor and the influence of the seriousness of the invasion over the metastasized potential. The bioptic fragments have been processed according to the usual histological technique paraffin embedding, and the sections have been colored with Hematoxylin-Eosin. Some of the cases have been immunomarked, to confirm the diagnosis, with antibody anti-cytokeratins, anti-vimentin, anti-protein S100 and anti-alpha actin. RESULTS: 12.24% of the patients with tumors with Broders II degree, 28.5% of those with Broders III degree and 52.94% of those patients with Broders IV degree presented metastasis, that show that the incidence of the regional ganglionary metastasis is higher in the case of the tumors with a low histological differentiation (test chi(2), p<0.001). 1.88% of the patients with an invasive squamous cell carcinoma under 6 mm and 38.60% of those with tumors of over 6 mm presented metastasis, that show that the risk of metastasizing is higher when the profoundness of the invasion is over 6 mm (test chi(2), p<0.001). In two cases we faced the changing of the malignity degree, meaning that it got worse passing from the Broders III degree (primary tumor) to Broders IV degree (relapse of the tumor). CONCLUSIONS: The histological differential degree of the tumor and the profoundness of the invasion are two important parameters when shaping the profile of the squamous cell carcinoma of the lip with a high degree of metastasis. The degree of malignity of the tumor may worsen during the evolution of the lip cancer, raising the risk of metastasizing as well.