Abstract Background: Hypoxia (hypoxia-inducible factor) induces certain biological capabilities, namely sustaining proliferative signaling, inducing angiogenesis, and reprogramming of energy metabolism, leading to tumor progression. Objective: To assess the immune-expression of glucose transporter activity (GLUT-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and to correlate immune-phenotyping with microvascular assessment in predicting aggressiveness and prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Materials and Methods: The study builds on a retrospective analysis consisting of 20 clinically staged cases of OSCC. The immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of GLUT-1 and VEGF. Hematoxylin- and eosin–stained sections were used to assess the microvasculature and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). The scores were compared using statistical analysis. Results: The immuno-expression of GLUT-1 and VEGF depicted a positive correlation with tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) staging with a statistically significant difference. TILs showed significant correlation with TNM staging, with maximum cases (45%) of OSCC having an immune-excluded phenotype. Microvessel density increased from Stage 1 to Stage 2. Conclusion: The comprehensive evaluation of angiogenetic pathway guided TILs of OSCC can influence the stratification of patients with more aggressive disease and could serve as an integrative parameter to the current staging system. TILs, if targeted as therapies, could halt the pathway, limiting the progression of OSCC.
Kumari et al. (Mon,) studied this question.