HISTOPATHOLOGICAL GRADING OF ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA AND ITS CORRELATION WITH KI-67 - A PROLIFERATIVE MARKER

BACKGROUND The prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma depends on the size of the lesion, level of local invasion, lymphatic spread, and presence of distant nodal metastases. The behaviour of the squamous cell carcinoma is marked by the degree of cell proliferation and differentiation, histopathological grading and proliferative index which can be derived by measuring Ki-67- an immunohistochemical marker. MATERIALS AND METHODS 1. All operated cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma diagnosed on histopathology. 2. Conventional Haematoxylin & Eosin Stain. 3. Ki-67 Dako Flex Monoclonal Mouse Anti-Human Ki-67 Ag Clone MIB-1 kit. H & E Stain (Haematoxylin and Eosin stain) and Immunohistochemical staining with Ki-67. RESULTS A general increasing trend in the mean Ki-67 LI with higher modified Broder’s grade was noted. However, the Ki-67 LI score increases with the increasing grades of oral squamous cell carcinomas. There was a statistically significant difference between these grades. CONCLUSION We conclude that the tumor cell proliferation as measured by Ki-67 LI at randomly selected fields has a positive association with the histologic grading in oral squamous cell carcinoma