Predictive Value of Argyrophilic Nucleolar Organizer Regions at Invasive Tumor Front in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Purpose: While grading the tumor, histopathological evaluation of invasive front of the tumor is important as the morphological features registered reflect the important biological events within the tumor cells. This study was undertaken to determine the prognostic value of malignancy grading and Argyrophilic Nucleolar Organizer Region (AgNOR) method in assessment of proliferative activity at the invasive tumor front of OSCC. Material and Methods: Excised tumor tissue and normal tissue were fixed, processed and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin stain and diagnosed, then successive section was stained with AgNOR and its counting was done at invasive tumor front. Correlation between conventionally used grading systems of Broder’s (1927) with that of Invasive Tumor Front grading of Bryne et al (1998) was done. Results: Increased proliferative activity and AgNOR count was found in tumor tissue than in normal tissue. A high statistical significance was found for mean AgNOR count and average of mean AgNOR / nucleus (p<0.01), average AgNOR count/nucleus according to clinical stage (p<0.05). Conclusions: Invasive front grading has much better predictive potential than any single tumor marker at the invasive front.