Comparative Study of Exfoliated Oral Mucosal Cell Micronuclei Frequency in Normal, Precancerous and Malignant Epithelium

ABSTRACT Analysis of exfoliated buccal cell micronuclei (MN) is a sensitive method of monitoring genetic damage in the human population. In the present study 50 patients with precancerous or malignant oral epithelial lesions from the Departments of Facio-maxillary and ENT Surgery of RKMSP Hospital, Kolkata were compared with 50 age and sex matched healthy controls without any oral lesions.The MN frequency was increased in preoperative cancer cases and decreased in postoperative cases, while in pre cancerous cases it was higher than in the controls