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Comparative Study
. 2008 Jul 31:4:17.
doi: 10.1186/1746-160X-4-17.

Oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma shares clinical and histological features with angiosarcoma

Oliver Driemel  1 , Urs D A Müller-Richter, Samer G Hakim, Richard Bauer, Alexander Berndt, Johannes Kleinheinz, Torsten E Reichert, Hartwig Kosmehl
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma shares clinical and histological features with angiosarcoma

Oliver Driemel et al. Head Face Med. .

Abstract

Background: acantholytic squamous cell carcinomas (ASCC) and intraoral angiosarcoma share similar histopathological features. Aim of this study was to find marker for a clear distinction.

Methods: Four oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinomas and one intraoral angiosarcoma are used to compare the eruptive intraoral growth-pattern, age-peak, unfavourable prognosis and slit-like intratumorous spaces in common histological staining as identical clinical and histopathological features. Immunohistochemical staining for pancytokeratin, cytokeratin, collagen type IV, gamma2-chain of laminin-5, endothelial differentiation marker CD31 and CD34, F VIII-associated antigen, Ki 67-antigen, beta-catenin, E-cadherin, alpha-smooth-muscle-actin and Fli-1 were done.

Results: Cytokeratin-immunoreactive cells can be identified in both lesions. The large vascularization of ASCC complicates the interpretation of vascular differential markers being characteristic for angiosarcoma. Loss of cell-cell-adhesion, monitored by loss of E-cadherin and beta-catenin membrane-staining, are indetified as reasons for massive expression of invasion-factor ln-5 in ASCC and considered responsible for unfavourable prognosis of ASCC. Expression of Fli-1 in angiosarcoma and cellular immunoreaction for ln-5 in ASCC are worked out as distinguishing features of both entities.

Conclusion: Fli-1 in angiosarcoma and ln-5 in ASCC are distinguishing features.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Exophytic growth of an oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma on the alveolar ridge of the lower jaw.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma: capillary and papillary growth pattern (H&E, ×150).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma: venular/glandular-like pattern (H&E, ×150).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Oral angiosarcoma: immunohistochemical demonstration of the epithelial intermediate filament protein cytokeratin in a subset of the tumour cells (clones AE1/AE3 ×150).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Oral acantholytic squamous cell carcinoma: immunohistochemical demonstration of the ln-5-γ2-chain. Note the strong immunostaining within the cytoplasm of the majority of the carcinoma cells (clone D4B5, ×150).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Oral angiosarcoma: immunohistochemical demonstration of factor VIII-related antigen in a subset of the tumour cells lining the vascular spaces (×150).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Oral angiosarcoma: immunohistochemical demonstration of Fli-1 in a subset of the tumour cells (×150).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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