STUDY OF TUMOR PLOIDY IN EARLY STAGES OF BUCCAL MUCOSA CANCER

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a tumour's DNA cont ent is a prognostic factor in screening out the biologically aggressiv e varieties of early buccal mucosa cancer. Seventy-eight cases of earl y squamous cell carcinoma of the buccal mucosa were studied, including 73 with aneuploid and diploid tumours, T1 and T2 rumours, pathologica l differentiation, vascular and perineural invasion, and the recurrenc e and disease-free survival rate in relation to aneuploid and diploid content were ascertained, The recurrence rate in aneuploid tumours is 72%, whereas in diploid tumours it is 6% (P<0.001), A Cox regression a nalysis demonstrated that tumour ploidy was a prognostic factor in dis ease-free survival, independent of other clinico-pathological characte ristics examined, Aneuploidy is the most accurate predictor of biologi cal aggressiveness of cancer of the buccal mucosa, Aneuploid early buc cal mucosa cancers should be treated by multimodal therapy to achieve a cure.