Evaluation of Stromal Patterns of Invasion in Patients with Oral Submucous Fibroma Turning Into Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is considered to be a collagen metabolic disorder. Increased production of collagen and decreased degradation of collagen leads to excess collagen presence that gets deposited in the oral tissue resulting in fibrosis. Oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC) arising from OSMF is known to be more aggressive, invasive with higher metastasis and recurrence rates than OSCC not arising from OSMF. The aim of the study was to evaluate histopathologically the various stromal patterns of invasion of OSMF turning into OSCC. 

Materials and methods: Seven histopathologically diagnosed OSMF cases were retrieved and assessed for.various stromal characteristics like pattern of connective tissue stroma around the island, vascularity, inflammatory response, pattern of invasion at Invasive tumour front and budding were assessed and tabulated and statistically analysed using SPSS by IBM. P <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.

Results: Fibrocellular pattern(57%) was the predominant pattern of connective tissue seen. Moderate vascularity(85.72%) was seen predominantly in all the cases. Severe inflammatory cell infiltration(57.15%) was seen in majority of the cases while low budding was seen in all the cases. Majority of the cases showed depth of invasion less than 5mm(71.43%) and most of the cases showed type 4 pattern of invasion(85.71%).

Conclusion: Evaluating the stromal patterns in oral submucous fibrosis patients will help in early prediction of its malignant potency and also help in instituting better treatment for the patients.