BACKGROUND: Infiltrating macrophage count (IMC) is found to correlate with the progression and prognosis of many human cancers. METHODS: This study used immunohistochemistry to measure the IMC (macrophages/high-power field [HPF]) in 92 specimens of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). RESULTS: A significantly increased IMC was found in OSCCs with larger tumor size, positive lymph node metastasis, more advanced clinical stages, or recurrence (all ps < .05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis found that OSCC patients with IMC >196 macrophages/HPF had a significantly shorter disease-free (p = .001, log-rank test) or overall survival (p < .001, log-rank test) than OSCC patients with IMC <196 macrophages/HPF. Multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that IMC >196 macrophages/HPF was an independent predictor for poor disease-free (p = .005) and overall survival of patients with OSCC (p = .015). CONCLUSIONS: The IMC can predict the progression and prognosis of OSCCs in Taiwan.
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Lu et al. (2009) studied this question.