Micronuclei: A Prognostic Tool

Abstract

Squamous cell carcinoma is one the most common oral mucosal malignant tumor, diagnosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma rarely presents difficulty, it is the cancer staging and histo pathological grading that are more important for prognosis, micronuclei are good prognostic indicator. Micronuclei screening can be done easily by exfoliative cytology, one of the most valuable diagnostic method other than routine histopathology (H and E-stained sections) and immunohistochemistry. It has been used in the detection of oral squamous cell carcinoma and has been shown to have a sensitivity of 94%, specificity of 100%, and an accuracy of 95%. Micronuclei frequencies were also found to be raised with increasing histological grades of squamous cell carcinoma.