Methods: Ten cases each of KCOTs, DCs and RCs were retrieved from the archives of the Department of Oral Pathology, Oral Medicine and Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya. Cases were selected based on the WHO criteria. H&E and immunohistochemical staining using two vascular markers (CD34 and CD105) were performed on all cases. Quantitative analysis was performed whereby all marker-positive vessels were calculated at x200 magnification in three hotspots/fields. The MVD score was expressed as the average number of vessels from all three different fields for each case. The overall mean MVD scores for KCOTs, DCs and RCs were compared.
Results: High MVD score expressed as mean ±SD was observed in RCs (CD34: 30.9±11.6; CD105: 25.37±27.2) followed by KCOTs (CD34: 17.7±4.8; CD105: 13.5±12.3) and DCs (CD34:15.7±11.6; CD105: 6.0±7.2) for both vascular markers.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that angiogenesis is not upregulated in KCOT compared to non-neoplastic cysts (RCs and DCs). On the basis of these observations we concluded that the locally-aggressive behaviour of KCOT might not be related to the angiogenic activity of this enigmatic tumour.