Abstract
Prognostic significance of nuclear DNA content was examined in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Using image cytophotometry, nuclear DNA content of cancer cells in the invasive tumor front was selectively measured in paraffin embeded biopsy tissue from 197 oral squamous cell carcinomas. 4c exceeding rate (4cER) was employed as an interpretation of the DNA histogram. The median 4cER for 197 tumors was 9.7% with range from 0 to 51%. In relation to various clinicopathological factors, high 4cER associated with advanced stage and grade. Five year cause specific survival rate was 75% for the whole series; 90% for patients with less than 9.7% of 4cER and 60% for patients with 9.7% or more. In each subgroup of mode of cancer invasion (Yamamoto-Kohama classification) excepting mode-1 and -2, there was a trend toward enhanced survival rate in low 4cER. This tendency was statistically significance only in mode-3. Furthermore, 4cER was the most powerful prognostic indicator in a multivariate analysis for patients with mode-3.
From these results, it was suggested that 4cER serves as useful prognostic indicator in oral squamous cell carcinoma.
