Early invasion of squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue: of 31 cases

Abstract

Early invasion of squatnous cell carcinoma of the tongue: pathology of 31 cases. J Oral pathol 1988: 17: 49-54.Thirty-one cases of early invasive squamous cell carcinotna (SCC) of the lateral border of the tongue were analyzed histologically; 9 were also serially sectioned. Three-dimensional reconstruction graphics showed that tnost of the invasive islands were connected with the adjacent epithelium, in spite of the apparent separation of islands on one histological section. Deep elongation, branching-off of rete processes and the tiarrowing of each junction of branches were frequently observed. Early invasive patterns were characteristic and classified into the following 4 prototypes: droplet(17 cases); elongating(12 cases); invaginating(l case); and reticular(l case) invasion. Marked eellular atypia was not often seen either in the carcinoma or the adjacent epitheliutn. Some of these cases showed little cellular atypia. These results suggested that not only cellular atypia, but also such morphological architectures (structural atypia), as the elongation and branching-off of rete processes, the increased number of separated islands, epithelial invagination, and the shortening of the distances between the surface epithelium and the underlying muscle layer, must be taken into consideration as being histological features of carcinotnatous changes.

Transplantation of colon carcinoma into granulation tissue induces an invasive morphotype

“…The main feature of de-differentiation in our material was the presence of thin, irregular, widely separated or even fully isolated tumor-cell strands, contrasting sharply with the compact, closely packed groups found in S.C. tumors (Gabbert, 1985). On the basis of serial sections, several investigators have found that most of the seemingly isolated cell groups in the periphery of invasive tumors are still connected to the main tumor mass (Carr et al, 1989;Hasega and Kayano, 1988;Sakuma et al, 1985;Seski and Schmid, 1982). This seems unlikely in our material, given the very large distance frequently observed between small tumor-cell groups and the main tumor mass.…”