AUTHOR=Amano Yusuke , Kihara Atsushi , Hasegawa Masayo , Miura Tamaki , Matsubara Daisuke , Fukushima Noriyoshi , Nishino Hiroshi , Mori Yoshiyuki , Niki Toshiro TITLE=Clinicopathological and Prognostic Significance of Stromal Patterns in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine VOLUME=9 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.859144 DOI=10.3389/fmed.2022.859144 ISSN=2296-858X ABSTRACT=Background

Stromal patterns (SP), especially desmoplastic reactions, have recently gained attention as indicators of malignant potential in cancer. In this study, we explored the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of the SP in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Materials and Methods

We reviewed 232 cases of surgically resected OSCC that were not treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. We categorized the SP of the OSCC into four groups: immune/inflammatory (84 cases), mature (14 cases), intermediate (78 cases), or immature (56 cases).

Results

The SP category was significantly associated with various clinicopathological factors, such as the histological grade, lymphovascular invasion, neural invasion, and a diffuse invasion pattern. For each of the factors, the immune/inflammatory type was associated with favorable categories, while the immature type was associated with unfavorable categories (p ≤ 0.001). The SP category was also shown to be a prognostic predictor: the 5-year relapse-free survival (RFS) rate was 72.0% for the immune/inflammatory type, 66.7% for the intermediate/mature type, and 31.2% for the immature type (p < 0.0001), and the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate was 85.1% for the immune/inflammatory type, 76.4% for the intermediate/mature type, and 50.0% for the immature type (p < 0.0001). In multivariate analyses, the SP category was identified as an independent prognostic factor for RFS and OS.

Conclusion

Our SP categorization method provides valuable prognostic information in OSCC.