A histological morphometric study of nuclear size in benign and malignant neoplasms of the human cheek

This report describes the application of simple morphometric methods to generate quantitative data on nuclear size from tissue sections of normal, benign and malignant oral epithelium of the cheek. Measurements of nuclear areas of basal and spinous cells from cheek mucosa were made on haematoxylin and eosin-stained sections using a Zeiss VIDAS image analyser. The lesions examined comprised benign squamous cell papillomas and islands of cells from invasive squamous cell carcinomas. Normal control epithelium was obtained from the biopsy margins of non-neoplastic lesions. The nuclear areas (AN) were obtained by direct measurement whereas the nuclear diameters (DN) were determined automatically. In both basal and spinous strata, values for both these nuclear parameters were lowest in normal tissue and increased progressively through benign papillomas, with the highest values being found invariably in carcinomas. Statistically significant differences were detected between both normal and carcinoma and between papilloma and carcinoma. The morphometric parameters AN and DN are of value in distinguishing benign from malignant lesions of the human cheek.