Histological grading of malignancy correlates with regional lymph node metastasis and survival of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of certain clinical and pathologic parameters in prognosing in oral squamous cell carcinoma (O-SCC). Patients and Methods. We performed a univariate and multivariate analysis of 212 patients with O-SCC and thus determined the move valuable factors in making a prognosis. We then investigated the relationships among the various pathologic parameters and regional lymph node metastasis. Regarding the pathologic parameters, a multivariate analysis using Cox's proportional hazard model determined inflammatory infiltration, invasive tendency, necrotic tendency, mitotic figures, and vascular permeation to be significant and independent prognostic factors affecting O-SCC. In addition, such the pathologic parameters as the mode of invasion, cellular atypia, mitotic figures, a necrotic tendency and as invasive tendency all correlated with the occurrence of regional lymph node metastasis. These statistically estimated histological grading of malignancy was thus found to be clinically acceptable and useful in helping to make a prognosis of O-SCC patients.