Thirty-seven patients with advanced and semiadvanced carcinoma of the oral cavity were preoperatively treated with cisplatin-or carboplatin-based chemotherapy in combination with simultaneous irradiation of 40Gy, and 2-6 weeks later underwent curative surgery. As for the preoperative clinical responses to the above treatment for primary tumor, 21 patients (56.8%) achieved CR, 15 patients (40.5%) were judged as PR, only 1 patient (2.7%) was NC, and the overall response rate was 97.3%. Histological effects were seen in 32 patients (86.5%)(9 as Grade II b, 5 as Grade III, 18 as Grade N according to Shimosato's classification). Acute and late side effects of this therapy were minimal and not severe. In a follow-up period ranging from 60 to 120 months, the 10-year cumulative survival rate was 83.8% for all patients. Distant metastasis and second primary malignancies were seen in 2 patients (5.4%). This combined simultaneous chemoradiotherapy seems to be a highly active and well tolerated regimen for advanced oral cancer under long-term observation.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between immunohistochemical detection of p53 protein and the grade of epithelial dysplasia in malignant transformed oral leukoplakia.
Four cases of oral leukoplakia that became malignant were immunohistochemically examined for p 53 protein, PCNA and Ki-67. Ten cases that did not become malignant were used as the control group. p 53 protein staining was carried out using the labelled strepto-avidin-biotin complex method, and the counts were recorded per 1, 000 epithelial cells, PCNA, and Ki-67. The mean p53 index was 25.7% in the 4 cases that became malignant, and that in the control group was 11.4%. There was no difference in the PCNA and Ki-67 index between the p53-positive group and the p 53-negative group. The cases with higher grade of epithelial dysplasia tended to exhibit the higher p 53 index.
These results suggest that the expression of p 53 protein is associated with the grade of epithelial dysplasia.

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The purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyze and clarify the precision of tongue movement in the oral phase during normal swallowing. The subjects were 5 normal volunteers. Using 10 strain gauge based pressure sensors, the subjects swallowed the same test materials 3 times without chewing.
The measurement points were maximum pressure, tongue movement duration, peaks, minimum pressure, and the product of time and pressure.
The results showed that all measurement points had fairly good reproducibility and significant individual differences.
In conclusion, it is possible to study tongue movement quantitatively during swallowing, though there are many swallowing patterns in normal adults.

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Control of distant metastatic tumors is mostly difficult in treatment of malignancies. A metastatic pulmonary carcinoma, which was controlled by chemoimmunotherapy, was reported. A 76-year-old female underwent chemoradioimmunotherapy and partial maxillectomy for squamous cell carcinoma originated from the maxillary sinus. The maxillary carcinoma completely responded to inductive therapy, but the patient developed ipsilateral cervical lymph node metastasis two months after the inductive therapy and the lymph nodes were dissected. Eight months later, chest radiograms and computed tomographies revealed metastatic tumors in both lungs. Then the patient was treated with UFT (3 g/ day), PSK (3 g/day) and OK-432 (5 KE / week). The metastatic pulmonary tumors disappeared about two months later and have been controlled, although relapse was observed during the cessation of the therapy due to bone marrow suppression. With the disappearance of the metastatic tumors, the cytotoxic activity of the patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) against allogenic squamous cell carcinoma cells was increased to a higher level than that of PBMC of healthy individuals. Furthermore, compared with PBMC of the healthy controls, PBMC of the patient generated larger amounts of granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor, transforming growth factor-beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the presence of PSK and OK-432. The in vitro results and the clinical course of the pulmonary metastasis indicated that UFT and PSK as well as OK-432 coworked in the regression of the metastatic tumors and that chemoimmunotherapy is an useful strategy for pulmonary metastasis.

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Nasoalveolar cyst is a rare non-odontogenic cyst occurring in soft tissue. The purpose of this study was to document case of a 43-year-old male with a nasoalveolar cyst, to review related literature, and to discuss the etiology and histopathology of this lesion.
The cyst adhered to the mucous membrane of the floor of the left nasal cavity, and histopathologically, the cyst wall consisted of stratified columnar epithelium with many goblet cells and fibrous connective tissue with minor glands.

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