Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma; Clinico-pathological Parameters and Agnor Status in Grading

.. Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate clinico-pathological parameters and the status of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions stain in various histological grades of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on fifty cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma. The specimen were collected from the department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and processed for hematoxylin and eosin stain and AgNOR stain Pathology Laboratory, King Edward Medical University Lahore. Results: Bidi smoking is associated with oral squamous cell carcinoma. The AgNOR (mAgNOR and pAgNOR) status was significantly low in well differentiated and moderately differentiated compared to poorly differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma (p =0.001). AgNOR size in poorly differentiated was significantly higher than the AgNOR size in well differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma. Similarly the distribution of AgNOR in moderately and poorly differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma was significantly high. The AgNORs index was significantly high in poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma as compared to well differentiated and moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Conclusions: The use of AgNORs stain is easy, valid and reliable method to assess the histological grading of oral squamous cell carcinoma and should be used to predict the prognosis of patients.