This prospective study on 348 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma who underwent radical surgery established a close association between the DNA ploidy status of the primary tumor and the risk of local recurrence development. Nine percent of patients with flow cytometrically diploid tumors developed a recurrence compared to 46% of those with aneuploid tumors. This correlation held true even if evaluated with respect to tumor stage or histological grade. Thirteen percent of the diploid and 59% of the aneuploid group showed lymph node metastasis. These results provide substantial evidence that cytogenetic events that underlie aneuploidy formation from initially diploid progenitor cells are functionally linked to the development of tumor cell populations that have the capability to establish independently growing colonies in foreign tissues.

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