ARGYROPHILIC NUCLEOLAR ORGANIZER REGIONS IN THE EVALUATION OF TUMOR PROGRESSION IN THE ORAL-MUCOSA - CORRELATION WITH TISSUE PATHOLOGY

The present study has analysed the numbers of argyrophilic nucleolar o rganizer regions (AgNOR) in normal tissues and in premalignant and mal ignant lesions of the oral mucosa in order to assess their potential a s a biological marker for tumour progression. On comparison of AgNOR n umbers in different lesions, carcinomas showed the highest number (4.6 5+/-0.98) compared to leukoplakias (2.38+/-0.47) and normal tissues (1 .53+/-0.39). Spindle cell carcinomas and poorly differentiated squamou s cell carcinomas had higher AgNOR counts than well-differentiated car cinomas. In various clinically different types of oral leukoplakia, th e lowest AgNOR counts were observed in homogenous leukoplakia and the highest in speckled leukoplakia, No significant difference in AgNOR nu mber was observed between non-dysplastic and dysplastic leukoplakia, a lthough a significant difference was evident between dysplastic leukop lakia and normal oral mucosa. Correlating the AgNOR count and tumour p rogression, a significantly high positive correlation coefficient (r=0 .7969, P=0.0000) was observed.