Malignancy grading of squamous cell carcinoma in the floor of the mouth related to clinical evaluation.

A multifactorial grading system was used for histologic classification and grading of malignancy in 89 patients with squamous cell carcinoma in the floor of the mouth. All patients had been treated with surgery alone and only those patients were included in the study who at the initial diagnosis had no clinically suspected regional lymph node or distant metastatic involvement. There was a statistically significant correlation between the mean total malignancy scoring, on the one hand, and clinical staging, frequency of recurrences, and death from the first primary oral carcinoma, on the other.