Thymidine labeling index in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma in correlation with pTNM, age, histological grade and recurrence.

In this study, our aim was to investigate the prognostic features of the thymidine labeling index (TLI) in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The TLI values in tumor tissues and adjacent healthy tissues were assessed in 40 patients who had a pathological diagnosis of laryngeal SCC. The data were correlated with age, pTNM, histological grade and recurrence. The tissues (tumor and adjacent tumor-free tissue) obtained during surgery were labeled with (3)H-thymidine. A statistically significant difference was observed between tumoral tissue and adjacent tumor-free tissue (p < 0.05), but we could not confirm any statistically significant correlation between TLI and age, pTNM, histological grade and recurrence. In conclusion, TLI in laryngeal SCC had no significant relation with the clinicopathological features, probably due to the variation in tissue sampling and for tumor-dependent reasons. TLI may assist in differentiating malignant from benign lesions.